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11 - Novel Appropriations of the Law in the Pursuit of Political and Social Change in Latin America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2010

By
Pilar Domingo
Edited by
Javier Couso ,
Alexandra Huneeus  and
Rachel Sieder
Javier Couso
Affiliation:
Diego Portales University, Santiago, Chile
Alexandra Huneeus
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, School of Law
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Summary

INTRODUCTION

The purpose in this chapter is to develop a framework of analysis to advance our understanding of the processes that have led to the adoption of novel legal strategies by a variety of social and political actors in recent Latin American politics, as well as to examine the changing political narratives around rights and the rule of law that have accompanied these new strategies. The emphasis is on tracking what appear to be new forms of judicial activism, legal mobilization and what have been called “rights revolutions” in the region, and doing so from the broader perspective of legal culture and beyond the confines of the formal legal institutions or the courtroom.

Bearing in mind the diversity of experiences in Latin America, the emphasis of the chapter is on societies that share some of the following characteristics: where regime transition is relatively recent and brings with it a variety of political experiences connected to the struggle to redress human rights abuses of the past (with varying levels of effectiveness); where the notions of rule of law and rights-based democracy remain weak projects in reality, but have acquired greater discursive projection than at any other time of constitutional and state-building endeavors in the region; and (in some cases) where legal pluralism has acquired to varying degrees a prominent political face. These are processes that to all appearances coincide with and are causally connected to new forms and greater levels of judicial activism, or judicialization of political and social conflict.

Type
Chapter
Information
Cultures of Legality
Judicialization and Political Activism in Latin America
 , pp. 254 - 278
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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