Cultura giuridica e attori della giustizia in America latina

Legal Culture and Legal Actors in Latin America: Some Socio- Legal Observations - The author illustrates the contents of two books dedicated to actors in the system of justice in Latin America: Los actores de la justicia latinoamericana, edited by Luis Pásara, and Latin American Lawyers. An Historical Introduction, by Rogelio Pérez Perdomo. In conclusion to her essay, she ventures several reflections on the state and perspectives of Italian justice. The picture painted by the two books illustrates internal legal culture, to borrow Lawrence Friedman’s fertile notion, as the main obstacle to reform in the field of justice in Latin America. The quest for a different, thus more effective, justice would appear to call for radical transformations in the roles and activities both of the old actors of justice (the lawyers and the judges) and of the new ones (international actors). In the process of demonstrating what has been done so far in South America and what it would be worthwhile doing in future, the various authors generally seem to be aware that the achievement of a different system of justice from the traditional one is still a long way off. And this realisation certainly aggravates the lack of confidence in the institutions and in the justice service that is detected in public opinion in the region: the inefficiency of justice is a minus value in itself that becomes all the more serious when it results in iniquity and inequality. (English texts revised by Pete Kercher)

Dafne Bordone, Cultura giuridica e attori della giustizia in America latina in "SOCIOLOGIA DEL DIRITTO " 2/2008, pp 189-200, DOI: