When the State is the Hangman and the Law the Endpoint: A Methodological Proposal for Research in State Violence and Law

• Grant number: 23/14072-5
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: September 01, 2024
• End date: August 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Law - Special Rights
• Principal Investigator: Maira Rocha Machado
• Grantee: Maira Rocha Machado
• Host Institution: Escola de Direito de São Paulo. Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 25/11544-9 - Organization and public availability of documentary collection involving state violence., BP.TT; 25/02788-1 - Memorialization processes in research on law and state violence., BP.TT

Abstract

The aim of this project is to develop theoretical and methodological tools for research in law and state violence. Through two case studies (the João Case and the Carandiru Case) involving deaths that occurred in places of deprivation of liberty, this project will invest theoretically and empirically in the production of knowledge about the functioning and role played by the law in state violence, as well as the dilemmas and challenges involved in the production of this type of knowledge. The five components of the research problem are summarized in the following questions: 1. How to integrate the knowledge produced by social sciences on procedural records with the regimes of search and truth production that organize and structure the actions of the courts? 2. How to observe the various forms of interaction between state agents and the prevailing normative frameworks regarding the line that separates, on the one hand, actions protected and regulated by law, and on the other hand, abuse, excess, illegitimacy, and illegality? 3. How to observe the connections and intersections between decision-making arenas (within legal fields and between legal fields) in the construction of "facts" in a context of strong compartmentalization of knowledge and legal practices? 4. How to observe the collective dimension of state violence and the demands for memorialization in periods considered democratic? 5. How to observe normative arrangements and decision-making processes in situations where death has not yet occurred? The expected results are organized into four theoretical and methodological tools, to be tested, developed, and refined based on the case studies: (i) narratives and strategies of engagement with the law; (ii) normative arrangements and legal programs, which focus on the plane of norms broadly, encompassing rules produced by different authorities and with multiple degrees of normative strength; (iii) decision-making processes and decision-making arenas; and (iv) procedural flows and institutional designs - the latter two tools seek to capture the dynamics of administrative and judicial action and interaction, at two different scales, that of state agents and that of institutions. (AU)