In this opening episode of a new Review of Democracy podcast series on law, rights, and democracy in Latin America, Gabriel Pereira speaks with Fabio de Sá e Silva about the increasingly complex role of law in contemporary struggles over democracy and rights.
The conversation explores autocratic legalism and its evolution, asking how legal institutions and practices can contribute to democratic erosion while also providing resources for resistance. It then turns to conservative and right-wing legal mobilization, examining how actors beyond government use courts, rights claims, and other legal strategies to advance political projects and contest existing understandings of rights.
Finally, the discussion steps back to ask a broader question: how new is any of this? Against the familiar image of law as a vehicle for democratization and social transformation, the episode considers its longer-standing and more ambivalent relationship with political power in Latin America.
Fabio de Sá e Silva is Associate Professor of International Studies and Wick Cary Professor of Brazilian Studies at the University of Oklahoma, and one of the conveners of the Project on Autocratic Legalism.
The interview was conducted by Gabriel Pereira. Alina Young edited the audio file.
