The legal field as a battleground for social struggle: Reclaiming law from the margins

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...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Pecile, V. (Author)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Onati International Institute for the Sociology of Law 2021
Subjects:
Law
Online Access:View Fulltext in Publisher
LEADER 01610nam a2200193Ia 4500
001 10.35295-OSLS.IISL-0000-0000-0000-1216
008 220510s2021 CNT 000 0 und d
020 |a 20795971 (ISSN) 
245 1 0 |a The legal field as a battleground for social struggle: Reclaiming law from the margins 
260 0 |b Onati International Institute for the Sociology of Law  |c 2021 
856 |z View Fulltext in Publisher  |u https://doi.org/10.35295/OSLS.IISL/0000-0000-0000-1216 
520 3 |a 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. © 2021, Onati International Institute for the Sociology of Law. All rights reserved. 
650 0 4 |a Commons 
650 0 4 |a Critical Legal Studies 
650 0 4 |a Law 
650 0 4 |a Property 
650 0 4 |a Social movements 
700 1 |a Pecile, V.  |e author 
773 |t Onati Socio-Legal Series