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Routledge Handbook of Law and Society in Latin America

Rachel Sieder editor Karina Ansolabehere editor Tatiana Alfonso editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd

Published:30th Jun '21

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Routledge Handbook of Law and Society in Latin America cover

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.

"Sieder, Ansolabehere and Alfonso Sierra have assembled a stellar cast of experts on the interaction between law, politics and society in Latin America. I am not aware of any other handbook that is as inter-disciplinary as this one, or that covers such a broad range of issues as insightfully and effectively. The volume not only canvasses the literature on old and established topics, providing readers with an excellent overview of the evolution of socio-legal scholarship against the backdrop of political, social and legal change in Latin America, but also includes a wonderful fourth section with essays that identify incipient bodies of research on new and exciting topics. Graduate students and academics will find in this volume a rich source of information about the state of the discipline, and most importantly, a source of inspiration for future projects."Ezequiel Gonzalez-Ocantos, University of Oxford. Author of Shifting Legal Visions: Judicial Change and Human Rights Trials in Latin America

"This volume constitutes a landmark contribution to the scholarship on law and society in Latin America, and more broadly. It distinctively captures a breadth of analytical, disciplinary and thematic perspectives on the role of law and norm development in political, social and economic life in the region that is unique and highly valuable. In doing so it engages with the wider complexities of how formal and informal rules, norms and law are contested, negotiated and how legal institutions are invoked in pursuit of different objectives of justice and legal change. It constitutes a major contribution to the scholarship of law, politics and society in Latin America and elsewhere."Pilar Domingo, Overseas Development Institute


"Sieder, Ansolabehere and Alfonso Sierra have assembled a stellar cast of experts on the interaction between law, politics and society in Latin America. I am not aware of any other handbook that is as inter-disciplinary as this one, or that covers such a broad range of issues as insightfully and effectively. The volume not only canvasses the literature on old and established topics, providing readers with an excellent overview of the evolution of socio-legal scholarship against the backdrop of political, social and legal change in Latin America, but also includes a wonderful fourth section with essays that identify incipient bodies of research on new and exciting topics. Graduate students and academics will find in this volume a rich source of information about the state of the discipline, and most importantly, a source of inspiration for future projects."Ezequiel Gonzalez-Ocantos, University of Oxford. Author of Shifting Legal Visions: Judicial Change and Human Rights Trials in Latin America

ISBN: 9781032092461

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 453g

494 pages