Critical Constitutionalism and Latin American and Caribbean Decolonization.

AutorWolkmer, Antonio Carlos

This issue of the Law & Praxis journal, in collaboration with the Center of Emancipatory Studies and Practices (NEPE-UFSC) and the Critical Legal Thought in Latin America research group (UNESC), aims to insert within the Brazilian legal debate the reflections and researches produced in the last few years on Latin American Constitutionalism, approaching subjects as Human Rights, Constitutional Processes, Legal Pluralism, Interculturality, Multinationality, Nature Rights and Decolonization in Latin America and the Caribbean.

This effort is justified in the sense that a significant part of the Brazilian legal academy is either not familiar with the affluence of the legal thought in our region or simply ignores it, using theoretical benchmarks produced in the "Global North" in its investigations, without even trying to make connections that allow a intercultural dialogue between these theoretical arrays and perfect analysis of our social reality and institutions.

In a moment of deep crisis in institutions and dominant paradigms, specially of the model adopted by the so-called "neoconstitutionalism", uncritically imitated by legal experts in our country, who believed and promoted the idea that judicialization of politics/politicization of justice could serve as a means of "conciliation" between classes (or different social segments) and, also, that it would be possible to ensure a series of rights through the Judiciary Branch--which were conquered by the struggle of the country's subordinate sectors in the 1988 constitution--within the capitalist model, we understand it is paramount to open new horizons for the constitutional debate in our country.

In that way, during the last few years, we have brought together and promoted a series of reflections on the importance of returning to the legacy of Latin American critical thought on the recent legal-political experiences of the region. These experiences, likewise, are under strong attack by the imperialist and transnational capital interests, which traditionally shape and limit (ideologically) the legal-political debate(s) in terrae brasilis, hindering access and diffusion of vast literature and access to the affluent new jurisdicities construction processes, which are being promoted/adopted in various Latin American countries.

This is a a sort of "concealment" that reflects directly on the forms by which legal experts and operators of the brazillian (in)justice system comprehend, deal and take part on the main conflicts experienced by the original peoples, afro-brazillian, riverside and traditional peoples and communities, landless, homeless and a good portion of popular movements. As long as these "external models" are not overcome and we do not recognize the countries in the region are historically marked by coloniality--which reflects on the three structural incisions in our social-political formation, that is, oppression of class, race and gender--, there will be no possibility of overcoming of landmarks imposed by the hegemonic centers opf capitalist reproduction, and our countries will keep on being mere territorial spaces of exploitation of people and nature.

In an effort to make these debates accessible and promote new possibilities for thinking constitutionalism and rights, this dossier will attempt to combine collective and individual productions of various researchers from the countries in the region (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Cuba, Equador, Colombia, Venezuela, Porto Rico and Mexico) and from brazillian research groups that have been crutial for the development of critical legal research committed to the social transformation of Nuestra America.

In that sense, we aim to make the results of researches carried out in the last few years on the theme of Latin...

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