Truth as Justice: Investigatory Commissions in Latin America

In recent years, Latin American countries have sought to come to terms with prior periods of widespread human rights violations, relying increasingly on investigatory commissions. Investigatory efforts have been undertaken by democratically elected governments that replaced military dictatorships, by UN-sponsored commissions as part of a UN-mediated peace process, and by national human rights commissioners. This article examines truth commissions in Chile and El Salvador, an investigatory effort in Honduras, and a proposed commission in Guatemala. It compares the achievements and limitations of these commissions within the political constraints and institutional reality of each country, focusing on four major goals: the effort to create an authoritative account of the past; vindication of victims; recommendations for legislative, structural, or other changes to avoid repetition of past abuses; and establishing accountability or the identity of perpetrators.     

From unilateral liberalization to regional free trade agreements: a Latin America perspective

This paper provides an overview of changes in Latin American trade regime. The inward-looking import substitution industrialization (ISI) approach to development was replaced in the 1990s by an outward-looking strategy. The protectionist policies of the ISI strategy generated an anti-export bias, but unilateral trade liberalization (UTL) reduced this bias considerably. An issue discussed is why the pro-ISI consensus of the 1960s was replaced by the pro-export consensus of the 1990s? There has been a surprising proliferation of (bilateral) free trade agreements (FTAs) during the 1990s. In the paper it is argued that UTL and FTAs are complementary strategies. Latin America has comparative advantages in natural resources. A new debate over the development strategy has emerged. Information and communication technologies (ICT) are seen as crucial to a country’s growth in the twenty-first century. So, how can Latin American countries incorporate such technologies into their economies. Is it possible to make the leap from producing natural resources to producing ICT? In today’s globalized world, it is essential for Latin American countries to increase its exports. This paper reviews actions on different fronts; some that should be carried at the domestic level, and also, measures at the external level which require that the developed countries provide better market access to Latin American exports.     

The rise of the penal state in Latin America

The recent work of Loïc Wacquant identified the emergence of the penal state as a core feature of the global expansion of neoliberalism and the neoliberal government urban marginality. Drawing on Wacquant’s theoretical and conceptual reflections, this article analyses the emergence of a Latin American form of penal statecraft. By taking an in-depth look at the increasing criminalization of urban marginality in contemporary Latin America as well as the related developments in the local prison system, the single most important institutional expression of the Latin American penal state, important commonalities and differences between the penal statecraft experiments throughout Latin America and the countries of the ‘developed world’ are highlighted.     

Mobilizing Law in Latin America: An Evaluation of Black's Theory in Brazil

This research addresses two separate but related questions. First, to what extent are sociological theories proposed to explain legal behavior in Western societies applicable to non‐Western contexts? And second, to what degree is Black's theory of law generalizable, as he contends, “across time and space?” Our research merges these questions by exploring the applicability of Black's theory in a Latin American context. Data collected from a nationally representative survey in Brazil suggest support for Black's propositions regarding the impact of vertical, horizontal, cultural, and normative status on the likelihood of mobilizing the law, as well as the feasibility of using his framework for understanding legal behavior in non‐Western settings. Our discussion considers implications and directions for future analyses in both the Brazilian and cross‐cultural contexts.     

Replacing and Amending Constitutions: The Logic of Constitutional Change in Latin America

Since 1978, all countries in Latin America have either replaced or amended their constitutions. What explains the choice between these two substantively different means of constitutional transformation? This article argues that constitutions are replaced when they fail to work as governance structures or when their design prevents competing political interests from accommodating to changing environments. According to this perspective, constitutions are likely to be replaced when constitutional crises are frequent, when political actors lack the capacity to implement changes by means of amendments or judicial interpretation, or when the constitutional regime has a power‐concentrating design. It is further argued that the frequency of amendments depends both on the length and detail of the constitution and on the interaction between the rigidity of the amendment procedure and the fragmentation of the party system. The article provides statistical evidence to support these arguments and discusses the normative implications of the analysis.     

意思自治原则的成长与法治社会

意思自治原则的内核是主体的平等自由,理性主义和权利本位观、商品经济孕育了意思自治原则的精神。该原则的成长与法治社会有着深刻的内在关税。在现代法治社会中,意思自治原则的内涵有了新的发展,保障人权,实现经济民主成为其应有的以向。意思自治原则与我国社会主义市场经济体制的契合,必将加快我国的法治化进程。     

Sex trafficking in Latin America: dominant discourse,empirical paucity,and promising research

Much has been written in the English-speaking world on the topic of sex trafficking, but little is known about what researchers elsewhere have produced on this topic. An exhaustive literature search was conducted to locate publications on this topic from Latin America. A total of 74 publications were located and put through a systematic content analysis. Four main discernible patterns were noticed: (1) the vast majority of the publications were produced by individuals affiliated with international or non-government organisations; (2) the production of trafficking-related literature sharply declined after 2007; (3) of the small number of studies involving empirical data, most were qualitative in nature; and (4) the literature was primarily focused on the sexual exploitation of children. The discourse on sex trafficking in Latin America appeared to be dominated by advocacy groups. There were few scholarly articles, suggesting limited attention from the academic community. Despite limited empirical data, many Spanish-speaking authors made claims on the nature and extent of sex trafficking, with articles citing one another as source of evidence. This review finds a great need for the involvement of the academic community and for dispassionate and empirically grounded research on sex trafficking.     

Militarized Justice in New Democracies: Explaining the Process of Military Court Reform in Latin America

While a large body of literature emphasizes the importance of judicial reform in new democracies, few scholars have examined the reform of military justice systems in these settings—despite the potential for these courts to compete directly with civilian courts and subvert the rule of law. This article focuses on Latin America to empirically examine how the process of reforming military courts has played out in each democracy following authoritarian rule. We outline two distinct pathways: (1) unilateral efforts on the part of civilian reformers, and (2) strategic bargains between civilian reformers and the military. Within the unilateral category, we further distinguish efforts driven by civilian courts, those pursued by politicians, and those undertaken in the context of larger political transformations. Ultimately, we find that, absent a dramatic defeat of an authoritarian regime and its armed forces, reform efforts that do not engage and bargain with the military directly often fail to achieve long‐term compliance and improvements in human rights practices. The success of such reform efforts, therefore, may come at a cost in other areas of democracy and civil‐military relations. We conclude the article by summarizing our findings and reflecting on the lessons they provide for ongoing military justice reform efforts around the globe.     

(Un)Authorized: A Study on the Regulation of Street Vending in Latin America

This article offers an examination of the official rules that participate in the organization of street vending activities in Latin American cities. It does so by explaining the legal assemblages that serve to define how, where, and by whom certain Latin American public spaces may be occupied, and by empirically illustrating the way in which the legal status of street vendors—that is, whether or not they are willing or able to get official recognition to work in these public spaces—affects the way they use and occupy the urban landscape. The information gathered here suggests that securing access to official permission to work on the streets does significantly affect vendors' locations as well as their working modalities. The subsequent analysis also illustrates a significant relationship between vendors' legal status and specific interactions with urban authorities and other actors. These findings suggest that, although law cannot prevent the unauthorized occupation of public spaces for commercial purposes, it could certainty avert the reproduction of other illegal practices and, perhaps most importantly, protect the urban poor from the vulnerability they face before state and nonstate violence.     

Domestic Violence, Couple Interaction and Children’s Health in Latin America

This paper examines the relationships between several measures of couple interaction and children’s health. We hypothesize that more maternal input in decision-making, joint discussion of health issues, and the absence of violence and male control are conducive to better child health. Mortality and nutritional status are used as measures of child health. Analyses are based on Demographic and Health Surveys in five Latin American countries (Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Haiti and Nicaragua). Violence is the best interaction predictor of poor nutrition and lack of female autonomy is the best predictor of higher mortality. Joint discussion of family planning and joint decision-making about household issues are also predictive of child health. Male controlling behavior did not have a strong relationship with health outcomes in most countries. Overall, findings indicate that positive couple interaction is associated with improved health outcomes for children.     

论和谐社会视野下的政府职能体系

构建社会主义和谐社会,是在新形势下提高党的执政能力、贯彻落实科学发展观和推进我国经济社会发展的战略举措。从系统论的角度看,社会系统要实现整体和谐,获得良性的运行和发展,必须构建一个政府职能体系。本文在深入研究政府职能体系结构的基础上,重点论述了如何构建政府职能体系。