Law and Social Movements. Edited by Michael McCann (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006, 654pp. £150.00 hb)

2007 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 350-352
Author(s):  
P. A. J. Waddington
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 193-219
Author(s):  
Fiammetta Bonfigli ◽  
Germano Andre Doederlein Schwartz ◽  
Fabricio Pontin

This work is part of the research project developed by the Observatory on New Social Movements and Law in Brazil at La Salle University, focusing in the city of Porto Alegre and on the occupation of the City Council on July of 2013, which is placed in the context of the protests against the increase of bus fares and for free fare, attempting to understand the relationship between the political organization of the Bloco de Lutas pelo Transporte Publico and its legal group during the eight days of City Council occupation. We conducted semi-structured interviews with members of the occupation in order to clarify the dynamics in the movement and its understanding of the relationship between law and social movements, highlighting the deferment of the eviction order and the elaboration of two Bills as fundamental moments of the relationship between the collective organization of the occupation and its legal team. Este artículo forma parte de un proyecto de investigación desarrollado por el Observatorio de Nuevos Movimientos Sociales y Derecho de la Universidad La Salle de Brasil. Nos centramos en la ciudad de Porto Alegre y en la ocupación de su ayuntamiento en julio de 2013, en el contexto de las protestas contra el aumento de las tarifas de autobús y a favor del transporte gratuito. Intentamos comprender la relación entre la organización política del Bloco de Lutas pelo Transporte Publico y su grupo jurídico durante los ocho días que duró la ocupación. Realizamos entrevistas semiestructuradas con miembros de la ocupación para aclarar las dinámicas del movimiento y cómo entendía la relación entre derecho y movimientos sociales, destacando el aplazamiento de la orden de desalojo y la elaboración de dos leyes como momentos fundamentales de la relación entre la organización colectiva de la ocupación y su equipo jurídico.


2022 ◽  
pp. 000276422110660
Author(s):  
Joyce M. Bell

Scholars in many disciplines have examined how social movements use the law to create social change. While the study of the law and social movements has largely relied on studies of the US civil rights movement to develop theoretical tools for understanding how movements target the state to create legal changes, none of these studies have examined the legal strategy of the Black Power movement. This article draws on data from a larger project on Black Power law and the National Conference of Black Lawyers to develop the idea of the courtroom as contested space and construct a concept of courtroom resistance. I argue that the courtroom, operating as hegemonic white space, was viewed as a site of contestation by Black Power activists who found creative ways to challenge the legal, ideological, and physical “space” of the courtroom. These conceptual tools open an important avenue for researchers interested in examining the relationship between social movements and the law and how race operates in the courts.


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