Elements for a critical theory of Law in Colombia

Abstract

The Constitution of 1991 supposed in Colombia the advent of a renewed way of understanding national legal dynamics, now abandoning the archaic position of Creole positivist formalism, and embracing a constitutional model of an openly hermeneutical nature, associated with a policy of strengthening the judicial forum as an instance of construction of the political (López, 2004). However, a careful examination will show that a good part of the political and social promises that set the scene for the reception of neo-constitutionalism in Colombia have been dramatically abandoned if not romantically rethought. What we find in its path is, on the one hand, the strengthening of epistemological structures aimed at the perpetuation of transnational hierarchies of knowledge -Coloniality of Knowledge- (Lander, 2000) and the adoption of global political designs as local histories (Castro-Gómez y Guardiola, 2001; Mignolo, 2003), within the exclusive context that Cognitive Capitalism already supposes (Lazzarato, 2004; Virno, 2003a, 2003b; Moncayo, 2007). On the other hand, the models of collective political action have been challenged, which has contributed to the historical postponement of the conditions of possibility of an authentic democratic event (Badiou, 1989) in Colombia.