Routledge Handbook of Law and Society in Latin America

An understanding of law and its efficacy in Latin America demands concepts distinct from the hegemonic notions of "rule of law" which have dominated debates on law, politics and society, and that recognize the diversity of situations and contexts characterizing the region.

The Routledge Handbook of Law and Society in Latin America presents cutting-edge analysis of the central theoretical and applied areas of enquiry in socio-legal studies in the region by leading figures in the study of law and society from Latin America, North America and Europe. Contributors argue that scholarship about Latin America has made vital contributions to longstanding and emerging theoretical and methodological debates on the relationship between law and society.

Key topics examined include:

• The gap between law-on-the-books and law in action



• The implications of legal pluralism and legal globalization



• The legacies of experiences of transitional justice



• Emerging forms of socio-legal and political mobilization



• Debates concerning the relationship between the legal and the illegal.

The Routledge Handbook of Law and Society in Latin America sets out new research agendas for cross-disciplinary socio-legal studies and will be of interest to those studying law, sociology of law, comparative Latin American politics, legal anthropology and development studies.

1. Law and Society in Latin America: An Introduction Part 1: Law, Politics and Society 2. Latin America’s contribution to Constitutionalism 3.State and Law in Latin America: A Critical Assessment 4. Legal Pluralism and Fragmented Sovereignties: Legality and Illegalityin Latin America 5. Disobeying the Law: Latin America’s Culture of Noncompliance with Rules 6. Law and Violence in Latin America 7. Ethnography, Bureaucracy and Legal Knowledge in Latin American State Institutions: Law’s Material and Technical Dimensions 8. Latin American Feminist Legal theory: Taking Multiple Subordinations Seriously 9. Law and Race in Latin America 10. An Agenda for Latin American "Law and Development" 11. Marxist Perspectives on Law and Inequality in Latin America Part 2: New Constitutional Models and Institutional Design 12. Judicial Politics in Latin America 13. Supreme and Constitutional Courts: Directions in Constitutional Justice 14. Public Prosecutors Offices in Latin America 15. Human Rights Ombudsmen in Latin America 16. Prisoner Capture: Welfare, Lawfare and Warfare in Latin America’s Overcrowded Prisons 17. Challenges of Police Reform in Latin America 18. Legal Professionals in Latin America at the Dawn of the 21st Century 19. Legal Institutions as Arenas for Promoting Human Rights 20. Deglobalization and Regional Human Rights Part 3: Law and Social Movements 21. The Judicialization of Politics in Latin America 22. Society, the State, and Recognition of the Right to a Self-Perceived Gender Identity 23. Law, Gender and Social Movements in Latin America: Moral Negotiations and Uneven Victories in Feminist Legal Mobilization 24. Transitional Justice and the Politics of Prosecuting Gross Human Rights Violations in Latin America Part 4: Emergent Topics 25. Urban Regulation and the Latin American City 26. Landscapes of Property: Socio-Legal Perspectives from Latin America 27. New Influences on Legality and Justice in Latin America: Corruption and Organized Crime 28. The ‘New Militarism" and the Rule of Law in Latin American Democracies 29. Drugs and the Law in Latin America: The Legal, Institutional and Social Costs of Drug Policy

Rachel Sieder is senior research professor at the Center for Research and Graduate Studies in Social Anthropology (CIESAS) in Mexico City. She is also associate senior researcher at the Chr. Michelsen Institute in Bergen, Norway. Her research interests include human rights, indigenous rights, social movements, indigenous law, legal anthropology, the state and violence. Her books include: ed. Demanding Justice and Security: Indigenous Women and Legal Pluralities in Latin America. (2017); ed. with John-Andrew McNeish, Gender Justice and Legal Pluralities: Latin American and African Perspectives, Routledge-Cavendish (2012); ed. with Javier Couso and Alexandra Huneeus, Cultures of Legality: Judicialization and Political Activism in Latin America, (2010). She has an M.A. in Latin American Studies and a Ph.D. in Politics from the University of London.

Karina Ansolabehere is a full-time researcher at the Institute of Legal Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and part time researcher at FLACSO-Mexico. She is a sociologist from the University of Buenos Aires, has a Masters in Economic Sociology from the University of General San Martin, and a Ph.D. in Research in Social Sciences with specialization in Political Sciences from FLACSO-Mexico. Her topics of interest are judicial politics, human rights, judicialization of human rights, legal cultures and political theory, with special focus on Latin America. She has taught courses on sociology of law, judicial politics, human rights and political theory. She is a member of the National Researchers System of Mexico. Ansalobehere has a degree in sociology from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and a Ph.D. in Social Sciences with specialization in Political Sciences from FLACSO-Mexico.

Tatiana Alfonso is an assistant professor at Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico (ITAM) Law School in Mexico