Law and Society in Latin America

This course examines Latin American law through a socio-legal lens, analyzing how formal legal texts are actually practiced, adapted, or resisted by various social actors. Drawing on Law and Society scholarship, legal realism, and critical legal traditions, the course investigates different factors shaping law's effectiveness and its potential for social transformation.

The first section explores foundational questions about legal obedience, judicial power, legal pluralism, and the gap between law in the books and law in action. The second section applies these frameworks to specific Latin American problems, including access to justice and legal mobilization around social rights.

Students will engage with theoretical and empirical texts, films, and podcasts while developing their own socio-legal research projects on topics such as health rights, antidiscrimination movements, anti-corruption initiatives, or accountability for atrocity crimes.

By combining interdisciplinary perspectives from law and the social sciences with practical illustrations, the course explores the challenges and possibilities of using law as an instrument for social change in Latin America.