Law and Diversity: European and Latin American Experiences from a Legal Historical Perspective. 

Vol. 1: Fundamental Questions

Peter Collin, Agustín Casagrande (eds.)

Global Perspectives on Legal History 21
Frankfurt am Main: Max-Planck-Institut für Rechtsgeschichte und Rechtstheorie 2023. XII, 764 S.
Online-Ausgabe: Open Access (PDF-Download, Lizenz: Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 International)
Druckausgabe: 42,84 € (Print on Demand bei ePubli)

ISSN 2196-9752
ISBN 978-3-944773-40-7
eISBN 978-3-944773-41-4

Quotation link of the online version: http://dx.doi.org/10.12946/gplh21


The principle of equality is one of the cornerstones of modern legal systems. Modern law is based on equality, and therefore assumed to stand in sharp contrast to the law of pre-modern, estates-based societies characterised by special legal regimes for particular groups or individuals. However, it is worth asking if this dichotomy can perhaps only be maintained if one looks solely at the fundamental postulates and the major codifications with their equality-orientated system formations. ‘Modernity’, too, is highly socially differentiated and continues or transforms ‘pre-modern’ distinctions to a not inconsiderable extent. All of this is often reflected in special rules created by the state or by the groups themselves – even if, in the latter case, they are often not recognised as law.

In this volume, the term ‘diversity’ denotes constellations of social difference that are relevant to normativity. This understanding of diversity only partially overlaps with the categories of postmodern diversity discourses. Rather, this volume’s central questions ask what social differences are relevant to normativity, to what extent and in what respect. Or, to relate it more specifically to the relationship between law and diversity: which social differences also make a difference to the law?

A comparative look at European and non-European developments provides a broader perspective on these issues. In this context, Latin America is a particularly fruitful field of investigation. On the one hand, a translation of European legal traditions already took place during the colonial period and, after independence, Latin American states striving for modernity often took recourse to European legal ideas and regulatory models. On the other hand, the legacy of the colonial past continued to have a formative influence, and the social differentiation to which the law had to respond was largely different from that in European societies.

To ensure that bringing together European and Latin American perspectives did not result in a series of mere juxtapositions, the contributions on the development of a specific national legal system are accompanied by comments written by experts on other national legal systems. These comments, firstly, outline the comparative development in a different state and, secondly, highlight differences and similarities. European and Latin American authors alternate. The period under discussion is the last 200 years.   

In volume 1, the authors deal with fundamental questions of law and diversity. Further volumes on public law, private law and criminal law will follow.

Contents

IX          Preface

1           Introduction

              First Part: Thinking on Diversity and Law

              Section I: National Traditions of Social Theoretical Contouring of Social Differences

41          Alfons Bora
              Social Differentiation, Inequality, and Diversity in the Sociological Theory of Law –
              An Outline of the German Debate

93         Augustín Casagrande
             Comment: Law, Diversity and Sociological Imagination in Argentina (20th–21st Centuries)

              Section II: Traditions of Pluralistic Legal Thinking

117       Ralf Seinecke
              Traditions of Pluralistic Legal Thought: The Example of Germany

177       Armando Guvara Gil
              Comment: Monist or Pluralist Legal Tradition in 19th-Century Peru?

209       Rodrigo Míguez Núñez
              Comment: Pluralistic Legal Thought in Chile: A Critical Overview

              Second Part: Tendencies

              Section I: Diversity and Nation-building

231       Pedro Henrique Ribeiro
              National Identity through Diversity – Brazilian Nation Building Ideas and Theories,
              1920–1948 (and their Aftermath)

267       Bruno Debaenst
              Comment: The Tower of Babelgium. The Never-ending Belgian Nation-building

283       Alfons Aragoneses
              Comment: The “cuestión foral”: Legal Diversity and Nation-building in Spain

283       Ezequiel Adamovsky
              Comment: Diversity and Nation Building in the Periphery: Some Thoughts from Argentina

              Section II: Legal Lines of Development of Discrimination and Anti-Discrimination

313       Fernando Muñoz
              Discrimination: On the Constitutional History of a Fundamental Concept – a Chilean Perspective

347       Barbara Havelková
              Comment: The Different Meanings of Discrimination from a Czech Perspective

              Section III: Anthropological Approaches

359       Orlando Villas Bôas Filho
              Juridification and the Indigenous Peoples in Brazil: The Ambivalence of a Complex Process

385       Eduardo Zimmermann
              Comment: Racial Thinking and Ethnic Minorities in Latin America

395       Nancy Yáñez Fuenzalida
              Comment: The Juridification of Indigenous Claims in Latin America: Obstacles and Challenges

              Third Part: Legal Frameworks

              Section I: The Constitutional Embedding of Differences

421       Manuel Bastias Saavedra
              The Constitutional Embedding of Differences: Chile (1810–1980)

445       Agnieszka Bień-Kacała and Anna Tarnowska
              Comment: The Constitutional Embedding of Differences, 1921–1997: The Polish Example

              Section II: System and Codification – Exclusion or Inclusion of Special Law?

467       Massimo Meccarelli
              The Limits of Equality: Special Law in the Age of Legal Monism in Italy (19th–20th Centuries)

501       Carsten Fischer and Hans-Peter Haferkamp
              System and Codification – Exclusion or Inclusion of Special Law? A German Perspective

517       Jean-Louis Halpérin
              Comment: A French Perspective about the Limits of Equality in 19th–20th Centuries Law

533       Thiago Reis
              Comment: Diversity, Codification and Political Representation:
              Comments from the Brazilian Perspective

              Section III: Autonomy

547       Peter Collin
              German Discourses on Autonomy from the Beginning of the 19th Century Until Today

569       Michele Pifferi
              Comment: Construction and De-construction of Legal Identity:
              Different Notions of Autonomy in Italian Legal Thought (19th–20th Centuries)

581       Agustín Casagrande
              Comment: Autonomy, Subjectivity and Diversity: Genesis and Logic
              of a Juridical-political Concept in Argentina (19th–20th Centuries)

              Section IV: Legal Person and Legal Personality

601       Samuel Barbosa
              Mask of Legal Subjectivity: Equality and Difference within Personal Regimes in Brazil (1824–1988)

625       Stephan Kirste
              Comment: The Theory and Ethics of the Person in Law: The German Perspective

641       Victoria Barnes
              Comment: Legal Person and Legal Personality: A View from English Legal History

              Section V: Linguistic Diversity and the Language of Law

657       Gloria Patricia Lopera-Mesa
              Linguistic Diversity and the Language of State Law in Colombia, 1819–2019

681       Thomas Simon
              Comment: Austria-Cisleithania – a Non-nation Multi-ethnic State and its Language Policy

693       Zülâl Muslu
              Comment: From Pragmatic Overtness to Legal Taxonomy of Equality.
              Ottoman-Turkish Perspectives on Colombian Linguistic Diversity and Law

717       Stefan B. Kirmse
              Comment: Linguistic and Cultural Diversity in the Legal Sphere: Insights from Late Imperial Russia

              Conclusion

737       Leonard Wolckenhaar
              Categories and Concepts, Themes, References, and Outlooks
              in the Conference Discussions on “Law and Diversity”.
              A Structured Summary

757       Contributors

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