TITLE:
Multinormativity as Philosophy of Law: A View from Brazil
AUTHORS:
José Rodrigo Rodriguez
KEYWORDS:
Law, Pluralism, Democracy, Diversity, Multinormativity
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.12 No.1,
January
21,
2025
ABSTRACT: This text shows how the tradition of legal pluralism may help one to construct a democratic view of law in a culturally diverse country as Brazil. A multinormative view of law may be able to include social demands from the most diverse social agents and groups, averting the violence linked to homogenizing and centralized conceptions of law. This article also argues that it is not necessary to break up with the tradition of liberal law to conceive a multinormative model of law that opens space for the coexistence of various forms of community life. It is enough to reformulate its institutions to include the demands of all citizens and social groups in the form of normative orders, using the Western tradition as a “hybrid universalizing code” intended to deal with the conflicts between them, a code with formal qualities that should change as it must be responsive to social conflicts.