Legal Culture and Rule of Law in the Amazon

The Amazon is a unique region in the globe that attracts attention worldwide. Home to the largest rainforest on Earth and the most expansive biodiversity, the area is an object of concern due to environmental reasons. Meanwhile, it comprises nine countries, including a member of the European Union. Protecting natural resources and the traditional peoples living there illustrate that development, security, and policing are intertwined in the Amazon and encompass it as a hot topic on the international agenda. Amazon's problems are also discussed in international forums such as the United Nations or the World Economic Forum. Academia and non-governmental organizations are interested in the region. Many studies deal with the preservation of natural resources, the perils of harming biodiversity, or the rights of indigenous populations, unveiling that, among other issues, these are significant topics to understand the problems facing the region.

However, legal culture and the rule of law are issues that academics must analyze. This workshop aims to discuss these issues and the capabilities of its sovereign states to enforce norms in their territory. Most states in the region are developing democracies facing problems such as political instability, poverty, social inequalities, high levels of corruption, and lack of trust from their populations.

This context is aggravated by criminal organizations operating there, shaping transnational bonds. The world's largest cocaine producers are in the region—Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia—where national efforts are sometimes entangled with turmoil, instability, and uncertainties, as can be seen in recent history. Colombia ended the longest civil war in South America less than 20 years ago, while Peru and Bolivia have been politically unstable for a decade.

Thus, how can the rule of law be sustained in the Amazon? How can the states control the territory and enforce the law? Are the Amazon states able to enforce environmental laws? How do these states deal with the growing urban violence in the region? What are the capabilities of both public authorities for proposing laws and policies and judicial systems to process, prevent, and suppress different crimes such as drug dealing, smuggling, human trafficking, terrorism, or environmental crimes? How is it possible to protect traditional peoples there? These questions will be discussed by a diverse group of scholars from South America and Europe under the lens of the Sociology of Law.