The Struggle for Law
Legal strategies, environmental struggles and climate actions in Italy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1153Keywords:
Social movements, legal strategy, climate actionAbstract
The legal field constitutes both an advantageous and restrictive tool for social struggles. Current movements trust law and litigation as beneficial instruments. Nevertheless, legal strategies are deployed against protestors too. This article stems from processes of criminalization and unsuccessful “struggle for law” towards cases where legal strategies are embraced by social movements to demonstrate the Janus-faced nature of the legal field. The focus is on Italy, and is based on two-year judicial ethnography on the No TAV movement and fieldwork as well as documental analysis on the anti-Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) mobilization. Hence, the analysis focuses on a “positive” case selection, namely the most relevant climate litigation strategies pursued worldwide, with a special focus on Giudizio Universale, the first Italian action. The goal is to grasp both the conflicting aspects and the resourceful nature of law through empirical cases and case law to evaluate potential successful practices for current social movements.
Downloads
Metrics
Downloads:
PDF 410
References
Bailey, S., and Mattei, U., 2013. Social Movements as Constituent Power: The Italian Struggle for the Commons. Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies [online], 20(2), 965-1013. Available from: https://doi.org/10.2979/indjglolegstu.20.2.965 [Accessed 24 July 2020].
Barkan, S., 2003. Criminal Prosecution and Trial: A Neglected Dynamic in The Study of Law and Social Movements. Paper presented at the Annual meeting of the American Sociological Association. Atlanta, August.
Barkan, S., 2006. Criminal Prosecution and the Legal Control of Protest. Mobilization: An International Quarterly [online], 11(2), 181–194. Available from: https://doi.org/10.17813/maiq.11.2.a8671t532kww2722 [Accessed 24 July 2020].
Boutcher, S.A., and McCammon, J., 2019. Social Movements and Litigation. In: H. Kriesi et al., eds., The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Social Movements. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 306-321.
Burawoy, M., 2017. Social Movements in the Neoliberal Age. In: M. Paret, C. Runciman and L. Sinwell, eds., Southern Resistance in Critical Perspective. New York: Routledge, 21-35.
Calafati, A.G., 2006. Dove sono le ragioni del sì? La TAV in Val di Susa nella società della conoscenza. Turin: SEB.
Chatterjee, P., 2004. The Politics of the Governed. Reflections on Popular Politics in Most of the World. New York: Columbia University Press.
Chiaramonte, X., 2018. Social movements and the legal field: Becoming-Constituent. Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law [online], 22(1), 376-393. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1163/18757413_022001015 [Accessed 24 July 2020].
Chiaramonte, X., 2019a. Governare il conflitto: la criminalizzazione del movimento No TAV. Milan: Meltemi.
Chiaramonte, X., 2019b. The Right to Freedom of Assembly under the Test of Criminal Evidence. An Italian Case of Political Justice. Droit & Philosophie, 11, 169-187.
Chua, L., 2012. Pragmatic Resistance, Law, and Social Movements in Authoritarian States: The Case of Gay Collective Action in Singapore. Law & Society Review [online], 46(4), 713-748. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5893.2012.00515.x [Accessed 24 July 2020].
Coccoli, L., 2012. Vita comune, beni comuni e uso del diritto Politica e Società, 1, 125-130.
Cummings, S., 2017. Law and Social Movements: An Interdisciplinary Analysis. In: C. Roggeband and B. Klandermans, eds., Handbook of Social Movements Across Disciplines, Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. New York: Springer, 233-270.
Cummings, S., and NeJaime, D., 2010. Lawyering for Marriage Equality. UCLA Law Review [online], 57, 1235-1331. Available from: https://www.uclalawreview.org/lawyering-for-marriage-equality/ [Accessed 24 July 2020].
Cummings, S., and Eagly, I., 2001. A Critical Reflection on Law and Organizing. UCLA Law Review [online], 48, 443-517. Available from: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/473524bg [Accessed 24 July 2020].
Davenport, C., Johnston, H., and Mueller, C., eds., 2005. Repression and Mobilization. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Della Porta, D., and Diani, M., 2006. Social Movements. An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.
Della Porta, D., and Reiter, H., 2003. Polizia e protesta: L’ordine pubblico dalla Liberazione ai “no global”. Bologna: Il Mulino.
Fernandez, L.A., 2008. Policing Dissent: Social Control and the Anti-Globalization Movement. Newark: Rutgers University Press.
Fiorentino, D., and Chiaramonte, X., 2019. Il caso 7 aprile: Il processo politico dall’Autonomia Operaia ai No TAV. Milan: Mimesis.
Foucault, M., 1982. The Subject and Power. Critical Inquiry [online], 8(4) 777-795. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1086/448181 [Accessed 24 July 2020].
Foucault, M., 1991. Governmentality. In: G. Burchell, C. Gordon and P. Miller, eds., The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality. University of Chicago Press.
Franco Angeli, ed., 1987. I Nuovi Movimenti Sociali. Milan: Franco Angeli.
Friedman, L.M., 1975. The Legal System: A Social Science Perspective. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Galanter, M., 1974. Why the “Haves” Come out Ahead: Speculations on the Limits of Legal Change. Law & Society Review [online], 9(1), 95-160. Available from: https://doi.org/10.2307/3053023 [Accessed 24 July 2020].
Ganguly, G., Setzer, J., and Heyvaert, V., 2018. If at First You Don’t Succeed: Suing Corporations for Climate Change. Oxford Journal of Legal Studies [online], 38(4), 841–868. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1093/ojls/gqy029 [Accessed 24 July 2020].
Haraway, D., 1988. Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective. Feminist Studies [online], 14(3), 575-599. Available from: https://doi.org/10.2307/3178066 [Accessed 24 July 2020].
Hilbink, T., 2006. The Profession, the Grassroots and the Elite: Cause Lawyering for Civil Rights and Freedom in the Direct Action Era. In: A. Sarat and S.A. Scheingold, eds., Cause Lawyers and Social Movements. Stanford University Press, 60-83.
Hilson, C., 2002. New Social Movements: The Role of Legal Opportunity. Journal of European Public Policy [online], 9(1), 238-255. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1080/13501760110120246 [Accessed 24 July 2020].
Jhering, R v. ,1915. The Struggle for Law. Trans.: J.L. Lalor. Chicago: Callaghan and Company.
Kitschelt, H., 1986. Political Opportunity Structures and Political Protests: Anti‐Nuclear Movements in Four Democracies. British Journal of Political Science [online], 16(1), 57-85. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1017/S000712340000380X [Accessed 24 July 2020].
Machado Aráoz, H., 2014. Potosí, el origen: Genealogía de la minería contemporánea. Buenos Aires: Mardulce.
McAdam, D., 1982. Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930-1970. University of Chicago Press.
McCann, M., 2006. Law and Social Movements: Contemporary Perspectives Annual Review of Law and Social Science [online], 2, 17-38. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.lawsocsci.2.081805.105917 [Accessed 24 July 2020].
Mezzadra, S., and Neilson, B., 2017. On the multiple frontiers of extraction: excavating contemporary capitalism. Cultural Studies [online], 31(2-3), 185-204. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2017.1303425 [Accessed 24 July 2020].
NeJaime, D., 2013. Constitutional Change, Courts, and Social Movements. Michigan Law Review, 111(6), 877-902.
Norris, J., 2016. Entrapment and Terrorism on the Left: an analysis of post-9/11 cases New Criminal Law Review [online], 19(2), 236-278. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1525/nclr.2016.19.2.236 [Accessed 24 July 2020].
Peel, J., and Lin, J., 2019. Transnational Climate Litigation: The Contribution of the Global South American Journal of International Law [online], 113(4), 679-726. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1017/ajil.2019.48 [Accessed 24 July 2020].
Pellow, D., 2017. Environmental justice movements and political opportunity structures. In: B. Holifield, J. Chakraborty and G. Walker, eds., The Routledge Handbook of Environmental Justice. New York: Routledge.
Peñalver, E.M., and Katyal, S., 2010. Property Outlaws: How Squatters, Pirates, and Protesters Improve the Law of Ownership. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Polanyi, K., 1944. The Great Transformation. New York: Farrar & Rinehart.
Rajagopal, B., 2005. Limits of law in counter-hegemonic globalization: the Indian Supreme Court and the Narmada Valley struggle. In: C.A. Rodríguez-Garavito and B.d.S. Santos, eds., Law and Globalization from Below: Towards a Cosmopolitan Legality. Cambridge University Press.
Richardson, B.J., et al., eds., 2009. Climate Law and Developing Countries: Legal and Policy Challenges for the World Economy. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Rose, N., O’Malley, P., and Valverde, M., 2006. Governmentality. Annual Review of Law and Social Science [online], 2, 83-104. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.lawsocsci.2.081805.105900 [Accessed 24 July 2020].
Setzer, J., and Byrnes, R., 2019.Global trends in climate change litigation: 2019 snapshot [online]. Policy report. London: Grantham Research Institute. Available from: https://www.lse.ac.uk/GranthamInstitute/publication/global-trends-in-climate-change-litigation-2019-snapshot/ [Accessed 3 April 2020].
Shklar, J.N., 1964. Legalism. Law, Morals, and Political Trials. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Sighele, S., 2018. The Criminal Crowd and Other Writings on Mass Society. University of Toronto Press. (Originally published in 1891).
Smith, R., 2008. “Ecoterrorism”? A critical analysis of the vilification of radical environmental activists as terrorists. Environmental Law, 38, 537-576.
Son, B.N., 2018. Constitutional Mobilization. Washington University Global Studies Law Review [online], 17(1), 113-179. Available from: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_globalstudies/vol17/iss1/7/ [Accessed 24 July 2020].
Tarabini, S., 2019 Gasdotto TAP in Italia. NO TAP né qui né altrove/2. Perunaltracittà [online], 17 June. Blog post/Transcription. Available from: https://www.perunaltracitta.org/2019/06/17/gasdotto-tap-in-italia-no-tap-ne-qui-ne-altrove-2/ [Accessed 3 April 2020].
Terwindt, C., 2013. Protesters as terrorists? An ethnographic analysis of the political process behind the broadened scope of anti-terrorism legislation. Crime, Law and Social Change [online], 62, 207-234. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-013-9470-x [Accessed 24 July 2020].
Terwindt, C., 2014. Criminalization of social protest: “Future research”. Oñati Socio-Legal Series [online], 4(1), 161-169. Available from: http://opo.iisj.net/index.php/osls/article/view/350/362 [Accessed 24 July 2020].
Terwindt, C., 2019. When Protest Becomes Crime: Politics and Law in Liberal Democracies. London: Pluto Press.
Triolo, L., 2004. Il legalismo giuridico. Riflessioni in margine ad una teoria critica della legalità. Diritto e questioni pubbliche, 4, 153-199.
Zibechi, R., 2016. La nuova corsa all’oro: Società estrattiviste e rapina. Rome: Museodei by Hermatena.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 Xenia Chiaramonte
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
OSLS strictly respects intellectual property rights and it is our policy that the author retains copyright, and articles are made available under a Creative Commons licence. The Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution No-Derivatives licence is our default licence, further details available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 If this is not acceptable to you, please contact us.
The non-exclusive permission you grant to us includes the rights to disseminate the bibliographic details of the article, including the abstract supplied by you, and to authorise others, including bibliographic databases, indexing and contents alerting services, to copy and communicate these details.
For information on how to share and store your own article at each stage of production from submission to final publication, please read our Self-Archiving and Sharing policy.
The Copyright Notice showing the author and co-authors, and the Creative Commons license will be displayed on the article, and you must agree to this as part of the submission process. Please ensure that all co-authors are properly attributed and that they understand and accept these terms.
