Alternative Law

Political Action

Political involvement characterized the school from its inception. Indeed, judges, jurists, and scholars advanced the pioneer alternative law theses and practices in the context of broader mobilization against authoritarian governments that marked the rise of new social movements and other leftist political formations in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The first signs of the movement exist in Italy, where an organization of progressive judges—Magistratura Democratica (Democratic Judiciary), founded in 1969—advocated an “alternative use of law” aimed at realizing the civil, political, and socioeconomic rights introduced by the 1948 Constitution. Through myriad communiqués, conferences, publications, and court rulings, Magistratura Democratica members denounced and sought to counter the abuses committed under the auspices of the remnants of the fascist legal regime. They promoted the constitutionalization of law and social policy as a means of promoting civil liberties and economic redistribution.

A similar movement arose in Spain in the early 1970s, led by judges opposed to Francisco Franco's dictatorship (1937–1975) and its legal and judicial apparatus. First organized as a semiclandestine judges' association under Franco's regime (Justicia Democrática, Democratic Justice) and later as a legal association established after the transition to democracy (Jueces para la Democracia, Judges for Democracy), the movement had an important role in the debates leading to and the process of implementing the democratic constitution of 1978.

In Latin America, the movement entailed analogous judicial actions embodying an alternative use of law but took on a broader scope that, under the more general label of alternative law, included a wide array of law-centered strategies. These included legal advice to social movements, denunciation of human rights abuses by dictatorial governments (for example, in Brazil and Argentina in the 1970s), and provision of legal services to marginalized communities. In addition, activists developed alternative dispute resolution mechanisms based on the informal laws of marginalized communities and promoted the direct participation of citizens in processes of law creation and implementation. This broader understanding of the movement explains why the theory and practice of alternative law in Latin America since the 1970s links closely to other areas of sociolegal research and practice, such as legal pluralism, public interest lawyering, and judicial activism.

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