“Vast emotions and imperfect thoughts”: our tribute to Roberto Kant de Lima and his anthropology with law

Abstract

This article pays academic, affective, and intellectual tribute to professor Roberto Kant de Lima from a perspective situated within the field of Law, highlighting the relevance of his intellectual, institutional, and formative trajectory to the consolidation of the dialogue between Law and Anthropology in Brazil. First, the article examines key milestones in his academic work, especially his contribution to the institutionalization of legal anthropology, empirical legal research, and Institute for Comparative Studies in Institutional Conflict Management. It then analyzes central contributions of his work to a critical understanding of the Brazilian justice system, with emphasis on comparison by contrast, ethnographically inspired empirical research, and the denaturalization of legal categories. The article argues that Kant de Lima shifted the legal gaze away from its dogmatic certainties and toward the concrete practices of institutions, revealing tensions between norm and practice, rhetorical equality and institutional particularism, legal knowledge and power relations. Finally, it maintains that his legacy extends beyond his bibliographical production, also expressing itself in the formation of researchers, professors, and legal professionals committed to a critical, interdisciplinary, and empirically oriented reflection on justice, citizenship, democratic institutions and the institutional forms of conflicts administration in the different fields of the Public Safety and Criminal Justice systems.