Special consumer defense courts: expanding rights within democracy doi: 10.5007/2175-7984.2010v9n17p359
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5007/%25xAbstract
The present paper is a case study analyzing the institutionalization of consumers’ rights through the implantation of Special Consumer Defense Courts in the city of Salvador, state of Bahia, during the years 2000- 2005. We look at how access to justice, in accordance with the principles and premises of the 1988 Constitution, has actually unfolded. This study in political sociology is situated within the ambit of social justice and the broadening of modern rights that the State has operationalized through some specific organs. Our data reveal that the consumer rights included in the legal services provided through these Special Courts contribute toward raising and broadening people’s consciousness on the role of rights within social relations, at the site where consumers and economic forces (firms) confront another, within contemporary capitalism. Firstly, resorting to the courts is important in order to validate consumers’ grievances and to educate them to better understand the relevance of rights; in the second place, the services provided by these courts show that State action in providing legal services is not always able to provide adequate attention to citizens’ demands, given the paucity of resources available for these purposes. However, in general terms we can assert that access to public mechanisms of justice has contributed to broadening citizenship and toward a political culture that emphasizes the role of rights in the plural forms through which today’s subject-citizen is constituted.Downloads
Published
2010-01-01
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The articles and other work published in Política & Sociedade, a journal associated to the Graduate Program in Sociology at UFSC, are the property of the journal. A new publication of the same text, whether by the initiative of the author or third parties, must indicate that it was previously published in this journal, citing the edition and date of publication.
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