Socio Legal

The semantic richness of the word “pirate” – which has been applied indifferently to sea criminals, copyright infringers, and hit-and-run drivers – is based on an assumption to which it seems every person could agree: crimes committed by pirates are hateful because they are against the current order of society. For this reason the famous definition of pirates, in Latin, seems to fit perfectly: pirates are simply hostis humani generis (enemies of humankind), who are outside society, and whom we can all fight without any further justification because they act against “us.” But pirates have also been seen – and still they are, thanks to recent Blockbusters – as bloodthirsty but also romantic heroes. The myth of piracy still exerts its influence on people and researchers, leaving pirates in the ambiguous position to which they are so accustomed: if, on the one hand, pirates are those who damage cargoes or coastal zones, on the other hand they represent redemption for those among the poorest who cannot have other opportunities but to become pirates.

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RESUMEN: El presente estudio es una aproximación abierta de carácter crítico que pretende arrojar luz a la teoría del derecho revisando algunos de los efectos que ha traído consigo el influjo del pretendido positivismo sociológico y la consecuente alteración de su objeto científico. Desde una perspectiva transversal con el plano político, se discutirá el alcance de dicha transformación en la presente cultura jurídica, atendiendo a la preferencia que obtiene la interrelación entre el sistema legal y el Estado moderno, cuestión que entra en contraste con lo justo como aporía fundamental del derecho en su sentido clásico.

Palabras clave: filosofía del derecho, sociología jurídica, justicia

ABSTRACT: This study is an open and critical approach that aims to shed some light on the influence that the sociological positivism has had on the theory of Law and the consequent alteration on its scientific object. Under a crosscutting approach to politics, this article will discuss the scope of this transformation in the context of the current legal culture, based on the preference that the interrelationship between the legal system and the modern State gets. The aforesaid contrasts with the concept of justice as the fundamental problem of Law in its classical sense.

Keywords: Philosophy of Law, Sociology of Law, Justice

RESUMÉ : Cette étude est une approche ouverte, à caractère critique, qui vise à apporter un peu de lumière sur la théorie du droit, et à revoir certains des effets causés par l’influence du positivisme sociologique et la conséquente altération de son objectif scientifique. Dans une perspective transversale avec le cadre politique, il sera question de la portée de ladite transformation dans l’actuelle culture juridique, en faisant cas de la préférence obtenue par la correspondance entre le système légal et l’État moderne. Cette dernière contraste avec la justice en tant qu’aporie fondamentale du droit dans son sens classique.

Mots clés : philosophie du droit, sociologie juridique, justice

Street vending is ambivalent in India’s imagination of law, space, and self. This essay attempts to excavate street vending in India as an interstice: an enquiry directed towards how street vending is entangled with specific theoretical and ideological positions concerning culture, citizenship, commodification, consumption, globalization, legality, modernity, neoliberalism, poverty, politics, public space, and social movements. The focus of my excavation of interstitial street vending in India is twofold. First, a methodological front-staging of the interconnections between law, space and time in India. Second, an acknowledgment of the importance of revisionist accounts of Indian modernity; accounts that note emergent politics of urban space and the city while avoiding seductive binary reductionisms of public/private, inside/outside, formal/informal, legal/illegal, planned/unplanned, liberal/socialist, colonial/post-colonial, and modern/obsolete. While this essay focuses on an admit...