Towards a critical and decolonial perspective of law: from excluding universalism to resistance pluriversalism

Abstract

This article proposes a reflection on modern law and its premises from a critical and decolonial perspective. Through an analytical methodology, of bibliographic procedure, it carries out an analysis of the historical and political institutional role of the science of law in the context of capitalist western modernity/coloniality, to sustain that neither of the two predominant philosophical strands – positivism and jusnaturalism – calls into question the colonial organization of the world, even contributing to its legitimacy. Despite the formal independence of the former colonies, this colonial organization persists to the present day through structurally racist and asymmetric economic, commercial, financial, military, political and cultural relations, which are legitimized and perpetuated by law. The article also discusses the separation between form and content, characteristic of Western thought, and the pretensions of neutrality and universality of modern science. Finally, it claims the need to collectively build a perspective of law consistent with a pluriversal paradigm and in dialogue with social struggles.