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Dr. Helga Maria Lell

National University of La Pampa, Santa Rosa Argentina

Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Helga Maria Lell studied law at the National University of La Pampa, Argentina. She received her doctorate degree from the Austral University, Argentina, with a thesis on the subject "Parallelisms between Law and Linguistics: approaches from similarities in the study objects and epistemological concerns". In addition, she earned a diploma in social projects and methodology of social sciences as well as a masters degree in social and cultural sciences and philosophy. Dr. Helga Lell was a member of various interdisciplinary research teams. Her academic work was honored with several prizes and scholarships. Currently, Dr. Helga Lell is a researcher at the National Council for Research, Science and Technology (Conicet, Argentina) and Professor on Legal Philosophy and Director of the Centre for Research in Legal Sciences at the Economic and Legal Sciences Faculty of the National University of La Pampa.  Moreover, she is an external researcher at the International Seminar of Natural Law and Human Person at the Argentine Catholic University and of Institute for American and European Studies at the National University of La Pampa, member of the LabOnt-Argentina and director of the journal "Perspectives on Economic and Legal Sciences".

Dr. Helga Maria Lell was a Fellow at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg "Law as Culture" from April to June 2019.

Resarch project

„The Legal Concept of Person in Argentina's Legal System: Economic Consequences of the Interpreation of Rights“

Law is a cultural product by definition. Men create it in order to coordinate their behavior in society and, according to this, it cannot escape to the fact of being expressed and interpreted under a cultural paradigm. The legal concept of “human person”, as a legal construction, cannot escape to these characteristics. Although there is a theoretical and normative definition, the real referent exceeds language and prescriptions.

The Argentinian legal system has not a definition of human person (the former civil code had one of “physical person”)  and it relates the concept to three characteristics: 1) it has dignity; 2) it is inviolable and 3) it has autonomy . The autonomy is not explicitly recognized but it can be deduced from other legal prescriptions. The Supreme Court of Argentina has recognized that the human being is the center of the legal system and, according to that, every disposition must be interpreted in order to guarantee its rights. However, this sentence is not simple at all since concreting rights has economic costs and who, when and how are paying for them is a political and, mainly, a legal issue. 

As it can be seen, there is a double dependence of Economy to Law: 1) concreting rights in reality depends on economic resources; and 2) how to spend resources on concreting rights will be determined by legal statements.

The main research goal is to describe the legal concept of person as a human being with rights and duties that compose statuses according to legislation with a special emphasis on the differentiation of those roles. This is in order to show that concreting rights (specially, protective rights) have costs that lead to several economic effects that highlight the tension between individual and collective rights. The field of study is the Argentinian legal system.

Publications (selected)

Monographs

  • Lell, Helga María (ed.) (2018). Derecho y lenguaje: abordajes epistemológicos de una relación compleja. Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires: Marcial Pons Argentina y CONICET.
  • Lell, Helga María (2017). Paralelismos entre la Ciencia del Derecho y la Lingüística. Aproximaciones desde semejanzas en los objetos disciplinares y en los abordajes epistemológicos. Santa Rosa: EdUNLPam.
  • Lell, Helga María (2013). Una vertiente gnoseológica: aspectos teórico y normativo de la Ciencia del Derecho. Múnich: Editorial GRIN GmbH.

Articles and book chapters

  • Lell, Helga (2018) “Lenguaje, referente y analogía. Algunos problemas semánticos en el concepto jurídico de persona” Lell, Helga María (ed.). Derecho y lenguaje: abordajes epistemológicos de una relación compleja. Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires: Marcial Pons Argentina y CONICET, 2018. Pp. 143-158. ISBN 978-987-1775-41-5.
  • Lell, Helga (2018) “El concepto jurídico de persona como fundamento de los Derechos Humanos. Controversias semánticas en el sistema americano”. Herrera, D., Lafferiere, N., Maino, G. y Ranieri, D. (coords.). Estado de Derecho y Derechos Humanos. CABA: EdUCA y Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. Pp. 67-82. ISBN 978-987-620-367-8
  • Lell, Helga (2018). “Human rights and the regulation of anonimity. New challenges to law and research” Farina Madita Dobrick, Jana Fischer, Lutz M. Hagen. Research Ethics in the Digital Age: Ethics for the Social Sciences and Humanities in Times of Mediatization and Digitization. Wiesbaden: Springer.  ISBN 978-3-12908-8; ISBN (ebook) 978-3-658-12909-5. Doi: https:// do/10.1007/978-3-658-12909-5. PP. 119-128.
  • Lell, Helga (2017) “El concepto jurídico de “persona humana” y el acercamiento de la ciencia del derecho”. Miranda, L.R. (eds.). Metáfora y episteme: hacia una hermenéutica de las instituciones. Neuquén: Círculo Hermenéutico. ISBN 978-987-45956-7-6. Pp. 187-206.
  • Lell, Helga María (2016), “Hombres y máscaras: el concepto de persona como fundamento de las variantes relaciones entre Estado y libertad”. Pantoja, Bertha (coord). Décimo Concurso de Ensayo. Caminos de la Libertad. Memorias. México: Caminos de la Libertad.
  • Lell, Helga María (2016). “Un modelo “saussureano” de la relación entre el ordenamiento jurídico y las decisiones judiciales. Algunos aportes desde un paralelismo con la Lingüística”. Revista Llengua i Dret / Journal of Language and Law. N° 65. Junio de 2016. Catalunya: L'Escola d'Administració Pública de Catalunya.
  • Lell, Helga María (2016). “La equidad y la seguridad jurídica. El equilibrio como desafío a la ética judicial”. Revista de la Facultad de Derecho y Ciencias Políticas. N° 124. Enero-junio de 2016 (en prensa). Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana: Medellín, Colombia.
  • Lell, Helga María (2015). “Ordenamiento jurídico y decisiones judiciales: aproximaciones a partir de la dicotomía lingüística de sistema y actos individuales”. Revista de Ciencias Sociales. N° 2 (julio-diciembre 2015). Valparaíso: Universidad de Valparaíso
  • Lell, Helga María (2015). “Diacronía y sincronía de los sentidos normativos constitucionales. Algunas posibles intervenciones semánticas”. Cartapacio de Derecho. Vol 27. Azul: UNICEN. Pp. 1-23. 5
  • Lell, Helga María (2014). “Instituciones jurídicas y filosóficas en la Edad Media” en Miranda, R. (ed.). Edad Media en capítulos. Panorama introductorio a los estudios medievales. Santa Rosa: EdUNLPam.
  • Lell, Helga (2013). “Partidos políticos” en Médici, A., Catalani, F., Lell, H., Torroba, R., Pescader, C. Derecho Político Actual. Temas y Problemas. Tomo III. Santa Rosa, EdULPam.
  • Lell, Helga María (2013). “La etimología: herramienta hermenéutica para el desentrañamiento de metáforas olvidadas” en Miranda, L. R. (ed.). Palabras y algo más. Esbozos prácticos para el estudio del nivel léxico-semántico. Santa Rosa, EdUNLPam. En prensa. Con referato.