THE CHEAPEST MEAT ON THE LAW:

DECOLONIZING LEGAL RESPONSES TO NECROPOLITICS

Abstract

The article “The Law’s Cheapest Meat: Decolonizing Legal Responses to Necropolitics” aims to shift the centrality of the narrative about black violence against black people to their role as political actors of structural change. To this end, the article seeks to dissect the oral debates and written petitions of the Action of Non-Compliance with a Fundamental Precept (ADPF) number 635 – entitled ADPF Favelas pela Vida – before the Federal Supreme Court, a key strategy of favela movements and human rights lawyers to put an end to police violence and racism, especially in the communities of Rio de Janeiro. By focusing on ADPF 635, this article seeks to reconstruct the arguments brought before the Court by black lawyers and activists with a view to decolonizing the perspective, common in the legal narrative, which sees black bodies only as victims, wondering to what extent the speeches before the Brazil’s Supreme Court (STF) unveil subaltern and powerful views on the role of the law and the justice system in the fight against the politics of death and what are the futures dreamed of by these actors.