Health

Lidia Casas Becerra
| Springer

The Evolving Relationship Between Law and Development: Proposing New Tools

Helena Alviar García

The relationship between law and economic development continues to be an elusive topic, with three general approaches discernible (the purely instrumentalist approach, the instrumentalist law-centred approach and the dynamic approach). This chapter argues that there is a range of interactions taking place that have not yet been adequately analysed. For this reason I propose unpacking this relationship with a set of tools that foreground the theoretical dialogue taking place between economists and lawyers, in order to acquire a more complex understanding of the exchange that is taking place. First, a detailed unpacking of the set of ideas that underlie the role of law in society is necessary. This means understanding what the idea of law is in the background of both economists and policy-makers. Do they believe that law is a neutral frame that regulates market transactions or that it is an instrument to promote social transformation and redistribution? Each of the answers to these questions will deploy a different view of the power of judiciary, the executive branch or the Congress of Colombia. In addition, background definitions of liberty and equality are essential to limit the possibilities of any legal reform.

Same Sex Couples - Comparative Insights on Marriage and Cohabitation

Macarena Sáez
| Springer

This book shows six different realities of same-sex families. They range from full recognition of same-sex marriage to full invisibility of gay and lesbian individuals and their families. The broad spectrum of experiences presented in this book share some commonalities: in all of them legal scholars and civil society are moving legal boundaries or thinking of spaces within rigid legal systems for same-sex families to function. In all of them there have been legal claims to recognize the existence of same-sex families. The difference between them lies in the response of courts. Regardless of the type of legal system, when courts have viewed claims of same-sex couples and their families as problems of individual rights, they have responded with a constitutional narrative protecting same-sex couples and their families. When courts respond to these claims with rigid concepts of what a family is and what marriage is as if legal concepts where unmodifiable, same-sex couples have remained outside the protection of the law.

Until forty years ago marriage was the only union considered legitimate to form a family. Today more than 30 countries have granted rights to same sex couples, including several that have opened up marriage to couples of the same sex. Every day there is a new bill being discussed or a new claim being brought to courts seeking formal recognition of same sex couples. Not all countries are open to changing their legal structures to accommodate same-sex couples, but even those with no visible changes are witnessing new voices in their communities challenging the status quo and envisioning more flexible legal systems.

Gender and sexuality in Latin America-cases and decisions

Macarena Sáez, Cristina Motta
| Springer

Translated and updated from the seminal Spanish text on legal decisions affecting gender and sexuality in Latin America, this English edition is the only law text to focus specifically on the rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and the transgender population in addition to women’s rights more broadly. The volume provides close analysis of some of the most important decisions made by Latin American national courts, as well as those made by international legal bodies, that affect the rights and interests of these groups. Specially selected for their depth of argument and value as exemplars, the studies of good legal practice chart the path of the region’s normative values of justice as they have evolved away from a partial, and patriarchal, exercise of the law. They show how cases with vastly differing contexts such as, property rights and domestic violence have resulted in a mixed body of Latin American law. Some decisions are protective of women’s and minority rights. Some assess the wider social impacts of case law in which recognition of the discrete legal identities within households challenges established precepts, including religious ones. Other cases have been chosen as cautionary examples of bad decision-making and for the poverty of their legal debate. Updated to include the latest relevant jurisprudence from across the continent, this book is an informed, cohesive and comprehensive guide to understanding women’s and gender-based rights in Latin America.​

Same sex marriages

Macarena Sáez
| Springer

Property. In the book Gender and Sexuality in Latin America – Cases and Decisions

Helena Alviar García, Cristina Motta, Macarena Sáez
| Springer

Translated and updated from the seminal Spanish text on legal decisions affecting gender and sexuality in Latin America, this English edition is the only law text to focus specifically on the rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and the transgender population in addition to women’s rights more broadly. The volume provides close analysis of some of the most important decisions made by Latin American national courts, as well as those made by international legal bodies, that affect the rights and interests of these groups. Specially selected for their depth of argument and value as exemplars, the studies of good legal practice chart the path of the region’s normative values of justice as they have evolved away from a partial, and patriarchal, exercise of the law. They show how cases with vastly differing contexts such as, property rights and domestic violence have resulted in a mixed body of Latin American law. Some decisions are protective of women’s and minority rights. Some assess the wider social impacts of case law in which recognition of the discrete legal identities within households challenges established precepts, including religious ones. Other cases have been chosen as cautionary examples of bad decision-making and for the poverty of their legal debate. Updated to include the latest relevant jurisprudence from across the continent, this book is an informed, cohesive and comprehensive guide to understanding women’s and gender-based rights in Latin America.​

Citizenship

Cristina Motta
| Springer

The Problem of the Plaza: Religious Freedom, Disestablishment and the Catholic Church in Latin America’s Public Square

Julieta Lemaitre Ripoll
2016 | Springer

The privileged place that the Catholic Church has held in Latin America since colonial times continues to permeate the region’s countries today. This chapter examines the complex problem of the political presence of the Catholic Church in Latin American democracies. It locates this presence in the formation of nation states in the nineteenth century and in the many processes of democratization in the twentieth century. The author then engages with modes of disestablishment in Latin American countries, and the intimate link between the constitutional rights of freedom of religion and the relationship between the state and the Catholic Church. The chapter concludes by framing the church’s presence in the Latin American public square as a problem of the institutional power of the church, linked to contentious histories rather than to universal formulations of the right of freedom of religion.

Family

Isabel Cristina Jaramillo Sierra
2013 | Springer

Same-Sex Unions in Mexico: Between Text and Doctrine

Estefanía Vela Barba
2015

Currently Mexico recognizes same-sex marriage in several states. The
Mexican Supreme Court has been instrumental in this recognition, advancing an
interpretation of marriage outside its historical and textual interpretation. The
current state of same-sex marriage and LGBTI rights in general in Mexico is the
consequence of a new interpretation of the role of marriage and the family in the
Mexican society, as well as the evolution of the LGBTI movement.

Laicidad and Religious Diversity in Latin América

José Manuel Morán Faúndes, Juan Marco Vaggione
2017 | Springer

This book presents revealing reflections on historical, socio-political, and legal aspects, as well as their contexts, in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, and Peru. Further, it includes theoretical and empirical analyses that identify the connections between religion and politics that characterize Latin American countries in general.

The individual chapters are based on a dialogue between regional and international approaches, renewing them and taking them to their limits by incorporating the Latin American experience. The book reflects the current intensification of research on religion in Latin America, the resulting reassessment of previous approaches, and the strengthening of empirical studies. It provides vital insight into the ways in which politics regulates the religious sphere, as well as how religion modulates and intervenes in politics in Latin America. In doing so it builds a bridge between the findings of researchers in the region on the one hand and the English-speaking academic public on the other, contributing to a dialogue that enriches comparative perspectives.

Victims’ Rights in Flux: Criminal Justice Reform in Colombia

Astrid Liliana Sánchez Mejía
2017 | Springer

Same-Sex Marriage in the United States

Macarena Sáez
2015

This book shows six different realities of same-sex families. They range from full recognition of same-sex marriage to full invisibility of gay and lesbian individuals and their families. The broad spectrum of experiences presented in this book share some commonalities: in all of them legal scholars and civil society are moving legal boundaries or thinking of spaces within rigid legal systems for same-sex families to function. In all of them there have been legal claims to recognize the existence of same-sex families. The difference between them lies in the response of courts. Regardless of the type of legal system, when courts have viewed claims of same-sex couples and their families as problems of individual rights, they have responded with a constitutional narrative protecting same-sex couples and their families. When courts respond to these claims with rigid concepts of what a family is and what marriage is as if legal concepts where unmodifiable, same-sex couples have remained outside the protection of the law.

Until forty years ago marriage was the only union considered legitimate to form a family. Today more than 30 countries have granted rights to same sex couples, including several that have opened up marriage to couples of the same sex. Every day there is a new bill being discussed or a new claim being brought to courts seeking formal recognition of same sex couples. Not all countries are open to changing their legal structures to accommodate same-sex couples, but even those with no visible changes are witnessing new voices in their communities challenging the status quo and envisioning more flexible legal systems.

Families beyond heteronormativity

Juan Marco Vaggione
2013

This chapter analyzes how the family structure is gradually reconfigured on the basis of the existence of diverse sexualities. In their roles as same sex couples, as gay and lesbian parents, or as sons and daughters with different sexual orientations or gender identities, LGBTI individuals challenge different religious, moral, and legal conceptions of the family. The chapter focuses on the ways in which case law on sexuality not only widens the legal spaces for recognition of rights, moving the boundaries of the established family as a unique reality, but it also criticizes the characteristic heteronormativity of most legal rationales. In particular, case law is reviewed in three spheres of family rights: same-sex couples, the right to adoption, and child custody.

Gender and Sexuality in Latin America - Cases and Decisions

Cristina Motta, Macarena Sáez

Translated and updated from the seminal Spanish text on legal decisions affecting gender and sexuality in Latin America, this English edition is the only law text to focus specifically on the rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and the transgender population in addition to women’s rights more broadly. The volume provides close analysis of some of the most important decisions made by Latin American national courts, as well as those made by international legal bodies, that affect the rights and interests of these groups. Specially selected for their depth of argument and value as exemplars, the studies of good legal practice chart the path of the region’s normative values of justice as they have evolved away from a partial, and patriarchal, exercise of the law. They show how cases with vastly differing contexts such as, property rights and domestic violence have resulted in a mixed body of Latin American law. Some decisions are protective of women’s and minority rights. Some assess the wider social impacts of case law in which recognition of the discrete legal identities within households challenges established precepts, including religious ones. Other cases have been chosen as cautionary examples of bad decision-making and for the poverty of their legal debate. Updated to include the latest relevant jurisprudence from across the continent, this book is an informed, cohesive and comprehensive guide to understanding women’s and gender-based rights in Latin America.​