JURIDICAL DEPENDENT RELATIONSHIP, TRANSFERS OF VALUE AND THE AGRARIAN QUESTION

NOTES FOR A RESEARCH PROJECT ON LAW'S MOMENTS IN LATIN AMERICA

Abstract

This work is a theoretical exploration on juridical relationships found in Latin America's agrarian question. It questions itself about the utility of the concept "dependent juridical relationships" in order to understand the concrete Law-form found in capitalist agrarian enterprises and rural areas of Latin America. To achieve this, it uses bibliographical research as a methodological means to present the concept of dependent juridical relationships as the combination of Pashukanis' Marxist critique of law and Ruy Mauro Marini's relational analysis of economic dependency. Then, it seeks to sketch general concerns on the research about Latin American agrarian question, especially with the comparison of Brazil's and México's recent experiences. In this process, the concept of dependent juridical relationships shows heuristical capabilities to explain recent historical developments since it can operate in a more concrete environment of law analysis. It aims to mediate law's essential (juridical relationships where the exchange of equivalencies between equalized subjects operate) and apparent moments (as the juridical norms and judicial decisions that we experience in everyday life). At the same time, it also glances both the violatory moments of Law-form's equivalency (which can be bound to the concept of permanent original accumulation) and the still-presence of juridical subjectivities and exchange relationships, which expand themselves even to the inside of anti-capitalist social movements. Finally, it is proposed that the analysis of dependent juridical relationships should comprise together the understanding of capital's dispossessory moments and its mechanisms to control indirectly and co-opt the peasantry in order to fulfill the requirements to the Form-value's production and reproduction.