Peru

By the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s, there were several social changes in Peru based on legal reforms. These occurred in the agrarian, labor, education, and industrial sectors and were based on the idea of state intervention. There were different sources of influence behind these reforms. On one hand, there was important criticism of the state coming from the left. On the other hand, there was [Page 1107]significant influence flowing from the idea of social engineering of law coming from sociology of law. Several law professors in the Catholic University of Peru studied at Wisconsin University; they took back to Peru new theories and methodological tools related to sociology of law, law and development, philosophy of law, and legal pluralism.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Peru suffered from considerable political violence. The human rights movement developed a critical vision of the use of state force. Critical criminology helped scholars and activists understand the state's selective use of criminal law and penal institutions. Consequently, the state changed the criminal code, thereby introducing progressive ideas in 1991. During the 1980s, there was also an important Latin American meeting related to alternative legal services sponsored by the Institute of Latin American Legal Services (ILSA). There were several nongovernmental organizations working on human rights, land rights, and legal services for the poor. Other fields where important developments took place included legal pluralism and indigenous rights, gender and women's rights, and minority and children rights.

In most of these fields, the concepts of the state, law, and social relationship changed. First, scholars viewed law not just as a body of legal prescriptions, but also as a social reality. The study of law changed, too. Scholars introduced social tools of analysis, such as statistics, interviews, and surveys, to understand social influences in the production of law and the real impact of legal regulations in everyday life. They also questioned the idea of equality before law. Even though legal entities call for equity, the actual effect of legal institutions was to reproduce inequalities in the areas of gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic relationships.

Because of the approach commended by legal pluralism, the identification of the state and law also came into question. Several studies carried out during the 1980s and 1990s showed the coexistence of multiple legal systems from the Andes mountains to the Amazon basin. Indigenous peoples and rural communities have their own legal systems according to their own cultures and social needs. In 1992, the Roundtable of Legal Pluralism articulated a proposal for the constitutional recognition of customary law and the multicultural character of the state; the Peruvian Constitution of 1993 partially introduced the proposal.

The authoritarian government of Alberto Fujimori (1990–2000) did not permit pluralistic reforms to take effect, nor did it empower grassroots organizations, but rather it introduced neoliberal and populist policies. In addition, Fujimori radically undermined democratic institutions. This situation rekindled scholars and civil society's interest in democratic reform. One of the leading voices was that of the Coordinadora, a network of all human rights organizations of the country. Democratic elections took place in 2000, the government installed a Truth Commission, and courts tried hundreds of corrupt functionaries. In the new century, there has been increased interest in topics such as justice reform, alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, community justice, transparency, the fight against discrimination and racism, collective rights, and indigenous rights.

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