Diana Villegas (Paris): Contra Legem Orders. A Study on Normative Culture of Transgression

Abstract

In general, independence movements, revolutionary orders, hacker communities, organizations from contemporary protest and civil disobedience groups, have been criminalized by State law and even banished from the legal universe. Consequently, they are often excluded, marginalized, or ignored from the classic legal theory.  Based on my “Mafia legal order” research, I propose to move on and expand the study of the relations between law and social orders. So, I intend to go further into the analysis of other types of organizations, communities and movements that can also constitute a semi-autonomous social order called “contra legem order”. Legal pluralism, legal culture studies and legal consciousness studies are very useful framework to understand the interactions of these orders, how they reshape the State structures and social normativity, but also how they transform the whole legal landscape and social actors (dynamic perspective) as well as they are constituted as an effective order (static perspective). However, it is essential to look deeper at their participation in the creation of new normative narratives and discourses of and about the law.  Four case studies can illustrate the possibilities of this theoretical and methodological approach and “contra legem orders” capacity to be a rich source of reconfiguration of new legal and normative forms from below: zadist’ communities (zones to be defended), Catalunya independence movement, hawkers and anti-species groups.

Dr.  Diana Villegas

Zoom Link: https://uni-bonn.zoom.us/j/98644863514?pwd=R2tqRnczcVFEbDJ2Zld1T3JjVVAyQT09
Meeting-ID: 986 4486 3514
Kenncode: 942141

Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Diana Villegas studied law at the University Potificia Bolivariana Medellín, Colombia, and the University Paris II Panthéon-Assas. Subsequently, Diana Villegas worked as a researcher and lecturer at the Universities of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris II Panthéon-Assas, and Paris XIII Sorbonne Paris-Nord, among others. In 2016, her thesis on "L’ordre juridique mafieux. Étude à partir du cas de l’organisation criminelle colombienne des années 1980 et 1990" was honoured with the 'Prix Choucri Cardahi de l’Académie des sciences morales et politiques', the 'Prix de thèse Dalloz en droit privé' as well as the 'Trophée “Les insolites du droit“', Cercle K2' and the 'Prix Giovanni Falcone'. From 2016 to 2017, she worked as a researcher in the European Union's PRO-JUS justice project. Since 2017, Dr. Diana Villegas has been a researcher and lecturer (maître de conférences) in Civil and Criminal Law - a rather unusual combination - at the University Paris II Panthéon-Assas. Since May 2021, Dr. Diana Villegas has been a Fellow at the Käte Hamburger Center „Law as Culture“ in Bonn.