LEGAL IMPERIALISM: JURIDICAL FORM, DEPENDENCY E DOMINATION IN THE CONTEMPORARY CAPITALISM

Abstract

This article deepens the debate on the category of legal imperialism and its developments in contemporary capitalism. We argue that international law and imperialism do not constitute antagonistic poles, but rather dimensions of the same contradictory unity. Under the appearance of formal equality among sovereign states, international legality abstracts deeply unequal relations grounded in capitalist monopolization, value transfers, and imperial domination. We argue that, especially in its mature or late phase, imperialism does not operate without the mediation of international law. In this context, we propose the category of legal imperialism as a mediation between international legality and dependent legal forms. Legal imperialism is understood as a relation that is simultaneously endogenous and exogenous to legal processes, responsible for internalizing, within peripheral social formations, the logic of imperial domination. Extraterritorial legislation, deontological principles, institutional standards, the training of bureaucracies and legal elites, as well as mechanisms of international cooperation and tutelage, constitute some of its main expressions. In addition to its theoretical foundations, the article discusses the rise of Trumpism and the global far right as expressions of a coercive remodeling of international law and an expansion of legal imperialism.

Keywords: Legal Imperialism; International Law; dependency; imperialism; Operation Car Wash.