This article addresses the theoretical difficulty of justifying the use of penal coercion in circumstances of marked, unjustified social inequality. The intuitive belief behind the text is that in such a context—that of an indecent State—justifying penal coercion becomes very problematic, particularly when directed against the most disfavored members of society.

This paper deals with the relationship between law and social protests, a topic that seems particularly relevant at this time, when recent public events show the existence of growing tension between citizens and public officers. The paper does not explore the ultimate causes that triggered these social protests, but rather the normative and legal questions raised by these conflicts. The main question that it addresses is the following: How should the law act in the face of these growing expressions of (...) social discontent? The main point that it defends is that social protests are political expressions that, as such, deserve a special public (and particularly judicial) protection. The argument is particularly directed at studying the legal consequences of taking the expressive components of social protests seriously. The exploration may have a further theoretical interest for those who are interested in reflecting upon the scope and limits of the theory of deliberative democracy. (shrink)

Después de más de 200 años de vida del constitucionalismo, en América Latina, una mayoría de los países de la región sigue viéndose afectada por sistemas políticamente inestables y económicamente muy desiguales; en donde las violaciones de derechos humanos son un hecho habitual; las ramas políticas del gobierno tienden a funcionar con independencia de cualquier reclamo ciudadano, mientras se encargan de moldear normas a medida de intereses privados; los tribunales aparecen como órganos de difícil acceso público, que tienden a decidir (...) en favor de los poderosos, criminalizando a quienes protestan; y en donde el debate público destaca por las pobreza de su contenido. En este trabajo, se exploran algunas de las causas de dicha situación, relacionadas con el propio diseño del sistema constitucional dominante en la región. (shrink)

En este escrito me propongo examinar la filosofía política republicana como una concepción en diálogo con el liberalismo. Según intentaré mostrar -a través del recurso a ejemplos históricos provenientes de los orígenes del constitucionalismo- ambas filosofías se encuentran unidas por sus comunes aspiraciones igualitarias, pero al mismo tiempo muestran entendimientos diferentes acerca del significado y los alcances de la idea de igualdad. El republicanismo, según diré, viene a «reparar» los déficits del liberalismo en tanto postura igualitaria. Sin embargo -sostendré también-, (...) el éxito del republicanismo en esta empresa resulta, en todo caso, sólo parcial. Para proceder en este análisis, primero haré referencia a algunos rasgos salientes del liberalismo; luego mostraré las respuestas del republicanismo frente a los mismos; y finalmente mencionaré algunos de los límites propios de la respuesta republicana. Desde ya, me interesa dejar en claro que siendo tantas y tan disímiles las posibles caracterizaciones de las dos teorías aquí en juego -el liberalismo y el republicanismo- mi presentación sólo resultará de algún interés para quienes acepten las descripciones que aquí propongo sobre las mismas. (shrink)

Desde fines de los 90, y siguiendo una década de severos planes de ajuste estructural, América Latina fue surcada por numerosas experiencias de revueltas populares. Estas revueltas trajeron consigo masivas manifestaciones colectivas, altos niveles de agresión física y verbal contra políticos, jueces y funcionarios públicos, en general. Las protestas incluyeron, por ejemplo, la organización de ¿piquetes¿ destinados a bloquear el tráfico en las rutas principales, con el objeto de exigir empleo, comida, o el otorgamiento de subsidios; tanto como ruidosas manifestaciones (...) (i.e., ¿cacerolazos¿). Estas agresiones a las autoridades públicas alcanzaron el domicilio y las propiedades de los últimos, tato como los edificios públicos en los que trabajaban (la sede del gobierno, las legislaturas, los tribunales). Entre otros resultados, dichas protestas forzaron la renuncia del presidente Raúl Cubas, en Paraguay, en 1999;la del presidente Alberto Fujimori, en Perú, en el 2000; la del presidente Jail Mahuuad, en Ecuador, en el 2000 (tanto como la remoción del presidente Abdala Bucaram, en 1996); la del presidente Sánchez de Lozada en Bolivia, en el 2002; y la del presidente Bertrand Aristide, en Haití, en el 2004. En la Argentina, estas protestas culminaron con una profunda crisis que incluyó el mandato de cinco presidentes distintos en menos de dos semanas. Por supuesto, esta manifestaciones fueron promovidas, en cada caso, a partir de circunstancias parcialmente diversas. Algunas fueron seguramente más legítimas que otras; algunas fueron más ¿espontáneas¿ o ¿genuinas¿ que otras; algunas resultaron más poderosas y duraderas que otras. De todos modos, la presencia de todas estas variaciones no deberían impedirnos que reconozcamos las similitudes que vincularon a estos acontecimientos, que aluden al tipo de crisis que se encuentra afectando a muchos órdenes legales contemporáneos. (shrink)

En el trabajo, intento repensar la teoría penal de Carlos Nino, desarrollada durante sus estudios doctorales y posdoctorales, a la luz de su teoría de la democracia deliberativa, elaborada desde los años 80. Nino no tuvo la oportunidad de revisar plenamente sus estudios penales en la materia, luego de desarrollar su teoría de la democracia y este artículo se propone entonces dar algunos primeros pasos en esa dirección y explorar algunas posibles implicaciones de dicha tarea. In this work, I try (...) to re-think Carlos Nino’s theory about the Criminal Law, which he developed while he pursued his doctoral and post-doctoral studies, under the light of his deliberative theory of democracy, which he elaborated since the 1980s. Nino had no chance to develop this revision, so this article suggests ways to begin with this required re-elaboration. (shrink)

In a time of disenchantment with democracy, massive social protests and the 'erosion' of the system of checks and balances, this book proposes to reflect upon the main problems of our constitutional democracies from a particular regulative ideal: that of the conversation among equals. It examines the structural character of the current democratic crisis, and the way in which, from its origins, constitutions were built around a 'discomfort with democracy'. In this sense, the book critically explores the creation of different (...) restraints upon majority rule and collective debate: constitutional rights that are presented as limits to democratic debate; an elitist system of judicial review; a checks and balances scheme that discourages, rather than promotes, dialogue between the different branches of power; etc. Finally, the book proposes a dignified constitutional democracy aimed at enabling fraternal conversation within the framework of a community of equals. (shrink)

Estas páginas reseñan uno de los últimos libros de Roberto Gargarella. La obra, un diagnóstico de los problemas estructurales y normativos del constitucionalismo latinoamericano, abre debates centrales para las reformas de los sistemas políticos y jurídicos de la región, al tiempo que ofrece un ideal regulativo propio hacia donde dichas reformas deban dirigirse: el del derecho entendido como una conversación entre iguales. En el marco de la exposición de dichos argumentos se muestra los principales méritos del libro. Se (...) agregan algunas consideraciones críticas relativas a la forma en que el ideal de la conversación entre iguales articula las relaciones entre las instituciones representativas y la ciudadanía. Hacia el final se destaca la reflexión a la que incita La derrota del derecho en América Latina. (shrink)

The phenomenon of democratic erosion has become a prominent topic in constitutional scholarship over the past years. It is this concern with a deep-seated crisis of democracy that also motivates Ro...

In this comment to the brilliant book on the Constitutionalism in Latin-America, Gargarella, it is accepted that perhaps is the equality the empty promise among the ideals of constitutionalism in this region of the world. It is also accepted that an important part of the reason for this absence of equality lies in the institutional design, in the engine room of the Constitution, concretely in an hypertrophy of presidentialism. A complementary suggestion is added: the ideal of a constitutional democracy (...) presupposes the existence of a State with an autonomous, efficient, professional and robust public Administration. Only with a well-designed tax system and an Administration apt to carry out the proper functions it is possible to build a well-ordered society in which the Rawlsian Difference Principle is respected and honoured. (shrink)

A response to Roberto Gargarella’s review of Punishment, Participatory Democracy, and the Jury, by Albert W. Dzur.

Posthumanism is the key to interpreting the twenty-first century and represents an international research program on the relationship with technology and the biosphere and new forms of citizenship and identity. This book clarifies the common denominators that differentiate posthumanism from other proposals.

In this paper we present BTC, which is a complete logic for branchingtime whose modal operator quantifies over histories and whose temporal operators involve a restricted quantification over histories in a given possible choice. This is a technical novelty, since the operators of the usual logics for branching-time such as CTL express an unrestricted quantification over histories and moments. The value of the apparatus we introduce is connected to those logics of agency that are interpreted on branching-time, as for instance (...) Stit Logics. (shrink)

The theory of the firm initially developed by Ronald Coase has made explicit the political nature of firms by putting hierarchy at the heart of the economic process. Theories of workplace democracy articulate this intuition in the normative terms of the conditions under which this political power can be legitimate. This paper presents an organizational theory of workplace democracy, and contends that the democratization of firms requires that we take their organizational dimension explicitly into account. It thus construes democracy as (...) an organizational principle and juxtaposes it to market, hierarchy, and norm-compliance as rival principles for the organization of economic activities. Attempts to construe democracy as an organizational principle with unique features in the tradition of transaction-cost economics are discussed before proposing an innovative solution based on an updated version of grid/group cultural theory of politics, adjusted to accommodate the basic requirements of democratic theory. (shrink)

Roberto Esposito is one of the most prolific and important exponents of contemporary Italian political theory.

Roberto Mangabeira Unger and Lee Smolin argue for a revolution in our cosmological ideas. Ideal for non-scientists, physicists and cosmologists.

Reconfigures classic aesthetic concepts in relation to the novelty introduced by virtual bodies.

This book by Roberto Esposito - a leading Italian political philosopher - is a highly original exploration of the relationship between human bodies and societies. The original function of law, even before it was codified, was to preserve peaceful cohabitation between people who were exposed to the risk of destructive conflict. Just as the human body's immune system protects the organism from deadly incursions by viruses and other threats, law also ensures the survival of the community in a life-threatening (...) situation. It protects and prolongs life. But the function of law as a form of immunization points to a more disturbing consideration. Like the individual body, the collective body can be immunized from the perceived danger only by allowing a little of what threatens it to enter its protective boundaries. This means that in order to escape the clutches of death, life is forced to incorporate within itself the lethal principle. Starting from this reflection on the nature of immunization, Esposito offers a wide-ranging analysis of contemporary biopolitics. Never more than at present has the demand for immunization come to characterize all aspects of our existence. The more we feel at risk of being infiltrated and infected by foreign elements, the more the life of the individual and society closes off within its protective boundaries, forcing us to choose between a self-destructive outcome and a more radical alternative based on a new conception of community. (shrink)

This chapter focuses on one of the common fallacies in Western philosophy: accent. Accent is a fallacy of pragmatics. The fallacy of accent takes place when a premise in an argument seems to rely for its meaning on one possible vocal emphasis, but a conclusion is drawn that relies on an extrapolation from a different vocal emphasis of the same phrase. Such ambiguities are often the result of unacknowledged differences in background beliefs, attitudes, and expectations that people may implicitly bring (...) to the reading of a passage. The fallacy of accent can also be committed, therefore, when a passage is quoted without its original context, and erroneous inferences are drawn based on this (often deliberate) distortion. A classic example of this kind of deliberate form of quote mining is often used by creationists in their attempt to discredit Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. (shrink)

Problems of distributive justice throughout the lifespan are not new. Yet, the increased aging rate of contemporary societies and an array of new life‐extending technologies (LETs) make these problems more and more urgent and complicated. This chapter analyzes the moral and political impact of the LET. There are three kinds of “intergenerational” justice: justice between non‐coexisting generations, justice between partially co‐existing generations, and justice between coexisting generations. The advantage of considering LETs in the light of justice between age groups is (...) that we can assume a complete‐life view. LETs significantly modify the duration and the features of each stage of life. A consideration of the specific needs and features of each stage of life in a lifespan‐enhanced society is needed to regulate policies and offer fair equality of opportunity to each age group. (shrink)

Facebook claims that it is building a “global community.” Whether this sounds utopian, dystopian, or simply self-promotional, there is no denying that social-media platforms have altered social interaction, political life, and outlooks on the world, even for people who do not regularly use them. In this book, Roberto Simanowski takes Facebook as a starting point to investigate our social-media society—and its insidious consequences for our concept of the self. Simanowski contends that while they are often denounced as outlets for (...) narcissism and self-branding, social networks and the practices they cultivate in fact remake the self in their image. Sharing is the outsourcing of one’s experiences, encouraging unreflective self-narration rather than conscious self-determination. Instead of experiencing the present, we are stuck ceaselessly documenting and archiving it. We let our lives become episodic autobiographies whose real author is the algorithm lurking behind the interface. As we go about accumulating more material for the platform to arrange for us, our sense of self becomes diminished—and Facebook shapes a subject who no longer minds. Social-media companies’ relentless pursuit of personal data for advertising purposes presents users with increasingly targeted, customized information, attenuating cultural memory and fracturing collective identity. Presenting a creative, philosophically informed perspective that speaks candidly to a shared reality, Facebook Society asks us to come to terms with the networked world for our own sake and for all those with whom we share it. (shrink)

Comment ne pas désespérer? Comment maximiser notre capacité d'agir et de penser? Comment défaire tous les efforts et les dispositifs qui visent à séparer la multitude de sa puissance?00L'urgence de ces questions traverse l'oeuvre d'Antonio Negri depuis ses commencements dans les années 1960 et 1970, alors qu'un mouvement d'insurrection ouvrière soulevait l'Italie jusqu'à ses plus récents développements avec l'altermondialisation et l'émergence dans l'espace public des questions écologiques. À travers différents ouvrages devenus des classiques de la théorie politique notamment La Classe (...) ouvrière contre l'État, Marx au-delà de Marx, L'Anomalie sauvage, Le Pouvoir constituant, mais aussi, en collaboration avec Michael Hardt, Empire, Multitude, Commonwealth et Assembly--, Antonio Negri a proposé l'une des contributions les plus marquantes à la pensée critique contemporaine. À l'heure de la contre-révolution néolibérale et du renouvellement des modalités de l'exploitation, il s'agit pour lui de prendre acte de la péremption des formes anciennes de la lutte des classes et de contribuer à l'ouverture d'un nouvel horizon révolutionnaire, à hauteur des enjeux du temps présent."--Back cover. (shrink)