Latin American Law Research Articles

Multispecies Families in Latin American Law

A recent attitudinal change towards animals has led many people to recognize their family structures as multispecies families, that is, a family composed of human members and animals of other species, united by affective ties, and solidarity, in a horizontal relationship, and even where there is mutual recognition. This social phenomenon requires that the legal concept of family, which today more than ever accepts the plurality of family structures, also includes multispecies families. The protection of multispecies families is necessary and possible if one considers that in Latin America today, a post-positivist legal system prevails that is aimed at protecting fundamental rights and freedoms. This legal system allows for a broad interpretation of rights such as the right to free development of personality and the right to family integrity, rights that already serve as foundational for the recognition and protection of multispecies families in Latin America.

Why did Latin America Lose Faith in the Law?

AbstractColonial Latin America had the fame of being a land where lower-class people were forever suing their betters. To Latin America's popular classes, the law was an indispensable instrument for claiming rights, solving conflicts, and advancing interests. Fast-forward to the middle of the twentieth century, however, and Latin American law held a very different fame. The law was now something to be shunned. It was seen as an instrument of power, manipulated by the rich and influential. Public trust in the law was low, and support for alternative forms of justice, high. In comparison with the colonial era, we are faced with a baffling reversal. This article seeks to explain that reversal by elaborating three propositions: (P1) popular trust in the law declined because of the law's increasing formalism, particularly evident in the codification of civil and criminal law over the course of the nineteenth century; (P2) popular trust in the law declined because of the rise of patrimonial capitalism over the period of study; and (P3) popular trust in the law declined because a new generation of social rights became politicized, first under populist, corporatist regimes that arose in the region in the early and mid-twentieth century and then under the region's Cold-War military dictatorships.

A Latin American view of the human rights approach to tobacco control.

Human rights law is a powerful legal tool to protect health, including tobacco control. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (IESCR) obliges States to produce results and is enforceable. Although a human rights approach would have many advantages for Latin American tobacco control, it has not been appropriately used for advocacy purposes yet. Human rights law is a powerful legal tool to protect health, including tobacco control and smoking cessation. Therefore, I appreciate this article by Meier et al. [1]. I will briefly comment on some additional aspects, both generally and as they relate to the current situation in Latin America. Are human rights enforceable? In theory, yes. Human rights are inherent to human beings and empower individuals (rights holders) to demand that States (duty holders) comply with the obligations of those rights. However, an “artificial” contrast has been raised about differences in enforceability between civil and political rights (e.g. the right to life, liberty, property, etc.) and economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR), related to living conditions and access to material and cultural goods (including the right to health). Civil and political rights confer an obligation of results and no one disputes they are enforceable. ESCR confer obligations of means or behaviour and can be viewed as enforceable only to the extent that the State has sufficient resources; they are, therefore, often regarded as “expectations” [2]. For most Latin American law, the fact that ESCR must be fulfilled according to the available resources does not imply they are not enforceable. The obligation to use “the maximum” of the “available resources,” together with the obligation of progressive satisfaction and the need to the results to the appropriate technical or political standards, would make ESCR enforceable. In addition, international law imposes a fundamental rule: pacta sunt servanda, which means that “contracts are to be fulfilled.” Traditionally, the human rights State obligations were classified into positive obligations (to carry out certain activities leading to compliance; in the case of civilians and politicians) and negative obligations (to refrain from actions that violated them; in the case of ESCR). Currently, the Van Hoof classification describes three types of human rights State obligations: to respect (refrain from interfering directly or indirectly), to protect (take measures to prevent third parties from interfering), and to comply (adopt all legislative, administrative, budgetary and other measures appropriate for its realization) [2]. Although ESCR are considered enforceable rights, they are threatened by the doctrine, linked to economic liberalism, which aims to make the State cheaper, often at the cost of social policies. Additionally, although a human rights approach would have many advantages for Latin American tobacco control, this approach has traditionally not been used by tobacco control advocates, but by rather by the tobacco industry (e.g. arguing freedom of expression violation) to attack tobacco control policies [3]. A human rights approach currently has limited relevance for tobacco control policies in Latin America. As Meier et al. point out, human rights law has a prominent role in political and regulatory discourses, and some countries have already established a connection between tobacco control and the fundamental right to health. Because most Latin American countries belong to the civil law tradition, controlling private actors through civil liability litigation is underdeveloped. However, Latin America also has a strong tradition of controlling State action through fundamental rights litigation. Likewise, the Inter-American Human Rights System provides a way to demand human rights State responsibility. Although the current relevance of a human rights approach in Latin America may be limited, it seems a promising approach that ought to be explored [2]. None. None.

Reconstruction of Temporality and the Rule of Law: The Never-Ending Transition in El Secreto de sus Ojos

This article argues that expectations about transitional justice contribute to widespread ideas in mainstream comparative law contending that Latin American law has failed. We believe that these expectations are the result of understanding transitional justice as a mythological narrative that aims to interrupt time. To criticize this perspective, we “read” the 2009 Argentine film El Secreto de sus Ojos (The Secret in their Eyes) underscoring how the movie questions the notion that transitions break with the past. El Secreto de sus Ojos showcases a nonlinear reconstruction of time, its non-progressive ascension, and the continuity of the past in the present: the past-as-present. Following this cue, we question how the movie’s understanding of a Latin American legal system evidences a blind spot of mainstream transitional justice discourse. Our analysis thus challenges assumptions about the law in the Global South, offers a nuanced and reconstructed cultural understanding of law through its relationship with time, and proposes to use films as sites of critique for assumptions about time and space in comparative law.

JUSTIFICATION OF LEGAL PLURALISM IN THE MODERN WORLD

ANNOTATION: the article is devoted to the study of the basic directions of justification of the need for legal pluralism in the modern world. It is proved that the arguments of the supporters of the concept of legal pluralism can be systematized by distinguishing the substantive legal, cultural-psychological, global-historical and pragmatic aspects of the studied issues. The substantive-legal aspect of the justification of legal pluralism is connected with the understanding of law as a phenomenon, which is not limited to state-government normative prescriptions, but also permits the existence of relatively autonomous legal systems created by different social groups. This approach is most consistently advocated by representatives of the sociological school, social anthropology and the communicative theory of law. The cultural-psychological aspect of the justification of legal pluralism is connected with the fact that in modern society exist a significant number of ethno-cultural communities, each of which has a special understanding of equality, freedom, justice and order. Ignoring the cultural and religious diversity of the population by the state can lead to informal regulatory practices, shadow law and shadow justice. The global-historical aspect of the justification of legal pluralism reflects the impact of globalization, information technology, postmodern philosophy on the development of state and law. In the world today, there are many organizations with their own legal order and the ability to exert legal influence over different entities, regardless of their nationality. The pragmatic aspect of the justification of legal pluralism is oriented towards ensuring the effectiveness of legal regulation, since centralized state-government regulation does not always ensure the proper achievement of the objectives of law. This thesis is illustrated by the example of Latin American law. It is concluded that each of these aspects is sufficiently substantiated, and together they form a reliable "framework" of the scientific justification for the need for legal pluralism in the modern world.

UN MODELO SOCIOLÓGICO DEL DERECHO CAPITALISTA PARA AMÉRICA LATINA: DEPENDENCIA Y COLONIALISMO

Este artículo pretende ser una contribución para la sociología del derecho Latinoamericana, buscando encontrar las causas de este, es decir, contestar a la pregunta de por qué el derecho dice lo que dice y no otra cosa en esta región del continente americano. A pesar de que cada Estado-nación constituido en América Latina haya tenido su historia propia y especificidades geográficas, sociales y culturales distintas, es posible afirmar hoy día que comparten formas de control social y organización de la violencia, debido a su historia colonial e inserción al sistema capitalista mundial, y llegar a la conclusión de que conocer el fenómeno jurídico en América Latina es imprescindible para pensar las transformaciones necesarias para el bien vivir de nuestras sociedades. Así para ser posible desvelar críticamente de qué manera el derecho contribuye al control social en la región y qué posibilidades puede presentar este discurso a la lucha y resistencia de los pueblos por una vida digna, imprescindible volcarse sobre la sociología. Por lo tanto este artículo busca ser un aporte que pueda ayudar a comprender de manera crítica lo jurídico y sus efectos sobre las sociedades de la región actualmente.

The illicit association as a process cloning method

In this work we critically approach the figure of the illicit association from a double perspective: historical and constitutional, questioning its theoretical foundations and its jurisprudential use. We connect your employment with arbitrary criminal proceedings where procedural guarantees are usually violated. We recover its political history in times of witch hunts, when the term „subversive association“ is born, in times of persecution of the coven, taken by many contemporary historians (especially feminist as Silvia Federici) as forms of resistance to new forms of organization of rural property (since behind the witch hunt was the expansion of rural capitalism) or resistance to the privatization of land in Europe. We conclude, making a parallel with the witch hunt (political criminalization program), that the alternative to the constant and growing criminalization of marginalized sectors (historical replica of that political process, accompanied by the Inquisition, whose practices do not seem to have escaped the all our courts: the inquisitive model is still in force) must go through the critical construction of a Latin American law aware of its social and economic challenges, conflicts that always translate into punitive practices. We propose, in short, the construction (in the face of the allegedly neutral and apolitical boom of prison governance) of a Right - and a criminology and a State - to stop looking for witches to hunt. A guideline that can also serve more than three decades of Rosa del Olmo and Lola Anillar de Castro (not coincidentally two women, two “witches”) introducing critical criminology throughout Latin America, to rethink the new challenges facing our criminology nowadays.

The Quantitative Intangibility of the Reserved Part in Chilean Civil Code: Latin American Law Perspective

The Quantitative Intangibility of the Reserved Part in Chilean Civil Code: Latin American Law Perspective

Argentina en el mapa actual de las legislaciones regionales sobre migraciones.

Argentine’s Migration Law (No. 25,871) in force since 2004 implied an historical change to Argentina and became rapidly a “regional model” for Latin-American laws by means of recognizing the human right to migrate as its starting point. In December 2015, a right-wing coalition (“Cambiemos” or “Let’s Change”, in English) won elections in Argentina and since then a new view of migration begun to be noticed, reaching its maximum expression by National Decree, No. 70/2017, issued by the Executive Branch and aimed to modify Law 25,871. Thus, this article pictures the current normative changes on migration in Argentina (through decrees, resolutions and another “sub-legal” norms issued during 2016-2017) together with a legal analysis of the Decree 70/2017. To conclude, the paper establishes a dialogue with recent modifications in the Latin-American legal migration framework to draft some consequences to the region.

Measuring the effect of body-worn cameras on complaints in Latin America

PurposeMore than a half a dozen published studies have observed the effect of body-worn cameras (BWCs) on complaints against the police. Nearly all, with varying degrees of methodological sophistication, tell a similar story: a strong reduction in complaints filed against the police once BWCs are in use. However, the entirety of the published evidence comes from English speaking countries, limited to the USA and the UK, and is restricted to the effects of BWCs on response policing. The purpose of this paper is to extend this body of research to Latin America, and to specialized policing jobs.Design/methodology/approachThe authors measured the consequence of equipping traffic police officers with BWCs in five out of the 19 traffic police departments in Uruguay (n=208), and compared these settings to both the pre-test figures as well as to the non-treatment departments. Interrupted time-series analyses and repeated measures of analysis were used for significance testing.FindingsStatistically significant differences emerged between the before–after as well as the between–groups comparisons: complaints were five times higher in the comparison vs the treatment jurisdictions, and there were 86 percent fewer cases compared to the pre-treatment period.Research limitations/implicationsThese outcomes suggest that the effect of BWCs on complaints is ubiquitous.Practical implicationsThe findings indicate that BWCs provide an effective solution for reducing grievances against the police, which can potentially be a marker of increased accountability, transparency and legitimacy for the Latin American law enforcement departments.Originality/valueThis study is an extension of findings on BWCs to non-English-speaking police departments, with a focus on specialized policing rather than patrol policing.

¿En qué esta la familia en el derecho del siglo XXI? El camino hacia un pluralismo jurídico familiar

<p>La presente investigación jurídica tiene como objetivo analizar desde una perspectiva panorámica el presente de la familia en el derecho occidental del siglo xxi, con particular énfasis en el derecho chileno y latinoamericano. Para este fin, se propone analizar los principales factores que dan cuenta de la transición de un modelo centrado en la familia, a un sistema de carácter individualista donde la familia se conforma como una herramienta para el desarrollo de la personalidad. Desde esta mirada, se presenta la idea de un pluralismo jurídico familiar, cuyo paradigma acoge la noción de un derecho de familia amplio, sustentado en la existencia y reconocimiento de diversos fenómenos jurídicos. Esto permitirá armonizar situaciones de conflicto normativo, y facilitará la tarea encomendada al Estado de garantizar el bien común.</p>

História e crítica em direito internacional na América Latina: revisitando discussões pretéritas sobre ensino jurídico na região

Este trabalho tem como objetivo revisitar os questionamentos articulados no âmbito das cinco Conferências de Faculdades de Direito Latino-Americanas realizadas entre 1959 e 1974 em nossa região. Sem pretender uma reconstrução histórica exaustiva sobre esses encontros, este estudo busca lançar luz em antigas discussões sobre ensino jurídico na América Latina. De forma semelhante, não se busca discutir o quanto efetivamente foi alterado na organização e nas atividades das faculdades de direito a partir das recomendações adotadas nas referidas conferências, mas sim explorar questionamentos pretéritos sobre o papel do direito em projetos políticos de transformação. A retomada dessas discussões é importante para embasar reflexões inovadoras sobre o ensino do direito internacional na América Latina na atualidade, pois mudanças foram propostas a partir de uma sensibilidade latino-americana, revelando-se a necessidade de atrelar projetos políticos a iniciativas de reforma pedagógica. Considerando que estudos históricos em direito internacional necesariamente contém um certo elemento de anacronismo, tal como afirmado por Anne Orford em ¿El passado como derecho o como historia? La relevancia del imperialismo para el derecho internacional moderno, esta contribuição aborda a dimensão histórica dos debates sobre ensino jurídico na América Latina como esforço necessário para as reflexões empreendidas atualmente no contexto do projeto “Repensar la educación en derecho internacional en América Latina” (redial).

GUIDE TO CUBAN LAW AND LEGAL RESEARCH

Recent developments in U.S-Cuba relations have resulted in a proliferating global interest in Cuba, including its legal regime. This comprehensive Guide aims to fill a noticeable void in the availability of information in English on this enigmatic jurisdiction's legal order, and on how to conduct research related to it. Covered topics include “The Constitution,” “Legislation and Codes,” “The Judiciary,” “Cuba in the International Arena,” and “The Legal Profession.” A detailed section on “Cuban Legal Materials in U.S. and Canadian Libraries” is also featured. Although the Guide emphasizes sources in English and English-language translation, materials in Spanish are likewise included as English-language equivalents are often unavailable. The Guide's 12 authors are members of the Latin American Law Interest Group of the American Association of Law Libraries’ Foreign, Comparative, and International Law Special Interest Section (FCIL-SIS).

The Latin American laws of correct nutrition: Review, unified interpretation, model and tools

Background: The “Laws of Correct Nutrition”: the Law of Quantity, the Law of Quality, the Law of Harmony and the Law of Adequacy, provide the basis of a proper diet, i.e. one that provides the body with the energy required and nutrients it needs for daily activities and maintenance of vital functions. For several decades, these Laws have been the basis of nourishing menus designed in Latin America; however, they are stated in a colloquial language, which leads to differences in interpretation and ambiguities for non-experts and even experts in the field.Methods: We present a review of the different interpretations of the Laws and describe a consensus. We represent concepts related to nourishing menu design employing the Unified Modeling Language (UML). We formalize the Laws using the Object Constraint Language (OCL). We design a nourishing menu for a particular user through enforcement of the Laws.Results: We designed a domain model with the essential elements to plan a nourishing menu and we expressed the necessary constraints to make the model׳s behavior conform to the four Laws. We made a formal verification and validation of the model via USE (UML-based Specification Environment) and we developed a software prototype for menu design under the Laws.Conclusion: Diet planning is considered as an art but consideration should be given to the need for a set of strict rules to design adequate menus. Thus, we model the “Laws of Nutrition” as a formal basis and standard framework for this task.

O direito latinoamericano na fase superior do colonialismo

This article discusses the new era of colonialism, in its lated stage, characterized by a predominance of multinational financial capital power sustained by communication technologies. In countries with high levels of real violence, where the repressive State system supports the killing of the excluded, monopolized media channels seek to conceal, minimize and naturalize genocide, leading to the acceptance of highly repressive laws. Genocide is a constant throughout this stage of colonialism, with Latin America particularly affected by violent lethality according to UN statistics: of the 23 countries in the world with an annual homicide rate of over 20 per 100,000 population, 18 are found in Latin America and the Caribbean (and 5 in Africa). Latin American law should reinforce its role as an instrument for combating colonialism, regaining trust among society by reconfiguring human rights.

On the Transferability of the Concept of Drinking Water Protection Zones from EU to Latin American Countries

The present study compares different legal texts on the quality of drinking water, the protection of surface waters and the establishment of drinking water protection areas in the European Union and selected countries in Latin America: Argentina, Brazil and Chile. In the context of a case study, carried out for the Argentine drinking water reservoir Paso de las Piedras, current management practice, its deficits in terms of catchment management practice and possible improvements are discussed based on the concept of water protection zones. The comparison of drinking water standards reveals that the regulations in the investigated Latin American countries comply with the standards of the Wold Health Organisation, while some differences are detected compared to the standards defined by the European Union (e.g., use of bulk parameters; individual standards). While within the European Union the definition and establishment of drinking water protection zones is a standard procedure, it is not explicitly suggested by national Latin American Laws. However, establishment of protection zones for drinking water reservoirs is feasible in accordance with water and environmental laws. The case study reveals that enforcement of the respective laws mostly fails. Protection zones are not implemented. Based on the findings, and according to European and German regulations on water protection zones, measures are suggested how to improve the raw water quality in the reservoir. Recommendations are provided for Latin American countries in general.

Mexican Law and Legal Research: A Guide Prepared in Conjunction with the Program 'Mexican Law and Legal Research: Overcoming the Challenges'

This guide, which is a compilation of articles by members of the American Association of Law Libraries’ Latin American Law Interest Group, covers all aspects of Mexican legal research. Its purpose is to provide a contextualized overview of how to conduct research on Mexican law — referencing applicable Spanish language resources and highlighting any available sources in English. Organized into three main sections by general resource type, the Guide covers “Primary Sources,” “Secondary Sources,” and “Online Resources,” and then the more specific sources that fall within those categories. Thus, the section on “Primary Sources,” includes constitutions, official gazettes, compilations of legislation, administrative regulations, international agreements, and judicial decisions. “Secondary Sources” covers dictionaries and encyclopedias, treatises, textbooks, and monographs, and online law reviews. The final category of “Online Resources” includes both commercial and free collections of Mexican legal resources available on the Web.

The Long, Lingering Shadow: Slavery, Race, and Law in the American Hemisphere

The Long, Lingering Shadow: Slavery, Race, and Law in the American Hemisphere

Elementos para a descolonização do constitucionalismo na América Latina: o pluralismo jurídico comunitárioparticipativo na Constituição boliviana de 2009

The present essay puts analyses the manner and the extent in which the Bolivian Constitution of 2009 points towards transformations of constitutionalism in Latin-America, capable of its de-colonization. On the basis of this perspective and taking as critical reference the concept of legal communitarian and participative pluralism, this paper analyses the normative elements of the constitutional text in order of evaluating, critically, the emancipating possibilities for Latin-American Law

An Economic Analysis of Harmonization Regimes: Full Harmonization, Minimum Harmonization or Optional Instrument?

At the current stage in the process of building a European Contract Law, the harmonization dimension – the scope and reach of the harmonizing effect of the European rules – appears as a crucial issue. We show how the harmonization strategy is as important a question as whether we should have European Contract Law at all. We present in informal terms a simple economic model of how to build optimal harmonized rules and standards in a setting of pre-existing separate and diverse national ones, and we systematically explore how the different harmonization regimes (maximum harmonization, minimum harmonization, and pure co-existence of harmonized and national standards) affect the outcomes of the harmonization process. Résumé À la phase actuelle du processus de construction d'un droit européen des contrats, la dimension de l'harmonisation – l'étendue et la portée de l'harmonisation des règles européennes – apparaît comme une question cruciale. Nous montrons comment la stratégie d'harmonisation est une question aussi importante que celle de savoir si nous devrions avoir un droit européen des contrats. Nous présentons en termes informels un modèle économique simple sur la façon de bâtir des règles harmonisées optimales et des standards dans un cadre de droits nationaux séparés et divers, et nous explorons systématiquement comment les différents régimes d'harmonisation (harmonisation maximale, harmonisation minimale, et pure coexistence de standards harmonisés et nationaux) affectent les résultats du processus d'harmonisation. Zusammenfassung Im derzeitigen Stadium einer Europäischen Vertragsrechtsentwicklung erscheint die Frage nach Harmonisierung – ihrem Ziel und ihrer Reichweite – geradezu als eine Schicksalsfrage. Der vorliegende Beitrag zeigt, dass die Frage danach, ob Harmonisierung der sinnvollste Weg ist, nicht weniger wichtig als diejenige, ob wir überhaupt ein Europäisches Vertragsrecht haben sollten. Vorgestellt wird in einfachen, nicht formalisierten Überlegungen ein ökonomisches Modell dazu, wie harmonisierte Regeln und Standards bestmöglich zu konzipieren sind, wenn bereits ein System nationaler Rechte existiert. Zugleich wird systematisch untersucht, wie verschiedene “Harmonisierungsansätze” (Vollharmonisierung, Mindestharmonisierung, und schlichte Co-Existenz vereinheitlichter und nationaler Regeln) das Ergebnis des Harmonisierungsprozesses beeinflussen.