The legal field as battleground for social struggle
Scepticism towards law’s potential of fostering social change has been widespread in critical theory and contributed to strengthen social movements’ mistrust vis-à-vis the use of legal tools to advance their claims. Such “anti-law” posture is based on the assumption that law would formalise existin...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law
2021-12-01
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| Series: | Oñati Socio-Legal Series |
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| Online Access: | https://opo.iisj.net/index.php/osls/article/view/1320 |
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| author | Veronica Pecile |
| author_facet | Veronica Pecile |
| author_sort | Veronica Pecile |
| collection | DOAJ |
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Scepticism towards law’s potential of fostering social change has been widespread in critical theory and contributed to strengthen social movements’ mistrust vis-à-vis the use of legal tools to advance their claims. Such “anti-law” posture is based on the assumption that law would formalise existing relations of domination and posits the need for a political praxis liberated from “legalistic drifts”. This article discusses how legal tactics in favour of social change have been employed by social movements exerting a counter-hegemonic use of law in the post-2008 economic crisis conjuncture. The example of the struggle for the commons will be analysed as paradigmatic of how the interests of the marginalised can be protected by resorting to existing property arrangements, and how it is possible to reclaim law from the margins.
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-3d6766f76bea4b7ea7a152df7776b7b3 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2079-5971 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2021-12-01 |
| publisher | Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Oñati Socio-Legal Series |
| spelling | doaj-art-3d6766f76bea4b7ea7a152df7776b7b32025-08-20T02:23:48ZengOñati International Institute for the Sociology of LawOñati Socio-Legal Series2079-59712021-12-01116(S)10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-12162178The legal field as battleground for social struggleVeronica Pecile0Harvard Law School Scepticism towards law’s potential of fostering social change has been widespread in critical theory and contributed to strengthen social movements’ mistrust vis-à-vis the use of legal tools to advance their claims. Such “anti-law” posture is based on the assumption that law would formalise existing relations of domination and posits the need for a political praxis liberated from “legalistic drifts”. This article discusses how legal tactics in favour of social change have been employed by social movements exerting a counter-hegemonic use of law in the post-2008 economic crisis conjuncture. The example of the struggle for the commons will be analysed as paradigmatic of how the interests of the marginalised can be protected by resorting to existing property arrangements, and how it is possible to reclaim law from the margins. https://opo.iisj.net/index.php/osls/article/view/1320Social movementspropertycommonslawcritical legal studies |
| spellingShingle | Veronica Pecile The legal field as battleground for social struggle Oñati Socio-Legal Series Social movements property commons law critical legal studies |
| title | The legal field as battleground for social struggle |
| title_full | The legal field as battleground for social struggle |
| title_fullStr | The legal field as battleground for social struggle |
| title_full_unstemmed | The legal field as battleground for social struggle |
| title_short | The legal field as battleground for social struggle |
| title_sort | legal field as battleground for social struggle |
| topic | Social movements property commons law critical legal studies |
| url | https://opo.iisj.net/index.php/osls/article/view/1320 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT veronicapecile thelegalfieldasbattlegroundforsocialstruggle AT veronicapecile legalfieldasbattlegroundforsocialstruggle |