Gaining Voice & Grappling with the Law

• In Event: Comparative Legal Mobilization

Abstract

In this paper I challenge the stickiness of the concept of legal consciousness and contribute to our understanding of the roots of legal mobilization. I posit that dramatic life events can rapidly and fundamentally shift how people think about themselves in relation to the law, which in turn reconfigures what they imagine is possible. I focus on the processes through which three individuals whose loved ones were disappeared transformed from apolitical citizens who had made none or few claims on the state previously, to prominent activists and advocates challenging and negotiating with the state, and charting independent legal territory. I map the pathways each took from the moment of the disappearance to becoming involved with social movement organizations; giving their testimony for the first time; and meeting with state officials. As we follow how each of these families reacts to the disappearance of their loved one, we see them weigh the costs and benefits of ongoing mobilization. We see how the particular nature of disappearance as a grievance compels them to action and witness the importance of biographical availability and mobilization networks in shaping their response. Finally, we see how the way they think about themselves in relationship to legality and the law – their legal consciousness – is transformed.

Author

• Janice Kreinick Gallagher, Rutgers-Newark