Advanced Diploma in Critical Legal Thought in the Face of the Current Crisis

CLASS 1: The crisis of restructuring the form of the State

Teacher: Carlos Rivera Lugo

Conceptual summary of the class

This class will address the topic of the State as a historically determined social form. As a political form, the State is a derivative of the capitalist socioeconomic formation. Under this formation, political economy is not limited to the strictly economic but also constitutes a constellation of social relations of production and exchange, as well as legal and power relations, fundamentally underpinned by other social forms such as commodities and value. The class will also address the relative autonomy of the State and the class struggle that manifests itself within it amidst the current tendency of capital to become the State and more openly impose its class dictatorship. The case of the United States will be examined in this regard. The State is thus viewed as a field of struggle. Finally, the Marxist thesis concerning the historical necessity of overcoming the fetishism of the State form and promoting its withering away in order to build a new society will be addressed.

CLASS 2: The crisis of the capitalist state in Latin America and the Caribbean

Teacher: Beatriz Rajland

Conceptual summary of the class

We will discuss current issues related to the State from a Marxist perspective, focusing particularly on the State in Latin America and the Caribbean. The capitalist State is a product of capital as a social relation, and itself a specific social relation, which is the practical exercise of domination. But it is, at the same time, a space of struggle contested by the subordinate classes. We will explore the Gramscian concept of relative autonomy, which ultimately "succumbs" to the interests of the dominant class in relation to its hegemonic reproduction. In Latin America and the Caribbean, we must draw from its own original sources, from its own social makeup. Nation-states whose governments attempt any process of profound change or that could affect the interests of big capital are harassed and/or blockaded, causing great hardship for their populations. This situation is used by some progressive governments to justify their retreat.
There is another option, which involves the political decision to confront capital, with broad popular participation. Why isn't this option generally adopted? Herein lie the contradictions of the conception of the State under Latin American progressivism. We must delve deeper into the analysis of so-called progressive projects, their weakness, and their cult of pragmatism in the name of curbing a right wing that was already present within their own ranks. There is a need to build alternatives, to cultivate subjectivities willing to take structural, not merely rhetorical, measures. The crisis of liberal democracy. Current trends of strengthening the right and the far right. Debate surrounding the fascist or neo-fascist nature of the latter. The challenge is to ask ourselves, to analyze why and how we have arrived at this point, to analyze concrete experiences.

CLASS 3: Towards the communal state and the deepening of participatory and protagonistic democracy: the case of Venezuela and the communalization of the state political form as a horizon.

Teacher: Sonia Boueiri Bassil

Conceptual summary of the class

In Latin America and the Caribbean, revolutionary transformation processes have occurred that must be studied under the key of social and power relations, in tones of transition and/or progressive extinction of state political forms.
The Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (CRBV), approved in 1999 and promoted by the Bolivarian Revolution, was the first and only one in its history to be the product of an intense participatory process, which imbued it with a strong sense of belonging and legitimacy. Approved in a referendum with 72% of the vote, it reached its 25th anniversary on December 15, 2024.
As it matures, with the strengthening of People's Power based on the principles of participatory and protagonistic democracy, this historical project's immediate horizon is the construction of the Communal State (CS), leaving behind the old state model. According to the Organic Law of Communes, the CS is the “form of political and social organization, founded on the democratic and social state of law and justice established in the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (CRBV), in which power is exercised directly by the people, through communal self-governments, with an economic model of social ownership and endogenous and sustainable development, which allows for the achievement of the supreme social happiness of Venezuelans in socialist society. The fundamental cell of the CS is the Commune.”
This evolution involved testing organizational structures within the framework of Participatory Public Management to refine the conditions for direct participation in the exercise of power. The principle of self-government, the structure of the Communal Parliament, and the proposal for Communal Justice are also part of the Commune. In early 2025, President Maduro called for a constitutional reform to “expand democracy, define the profile of the society to be built, and the foundations of the new economy.”
Analyzing this political-legal evolution leading to "the construction of a new state" will be the objective of the class.

CLASS 1: The problematic condition of law in the present
Teacher: Carlos Rivera Lugo 

Conceptual summary of the class

Contrary to the prevailing conception of law in bourgeois society, in which law seems to arise from law itself—an abstract law reduced to a formal norm divorced from its historical and social context—this analysis will approach law as a social form that, on the one hand, is derived from capital and, on the other, also serves to order the social and power relations required for its reproduction. It begins with an understanding of the intimate relationship between fact and law: law as the formal recognition of facts and acts with normative force. The real character of the prescription, interpretation, or application of law is the result of the actual balance of power among legal subjects, who are, in fact, social subjects constituting specific social and power relations. Hence the urgency of putting an end to the pernicious fetishism of legal form as if it were something natural, neutral, and eternal. In recent times, we have seen how the subsumption of legal form to the interests of capital has been laid bare. This has plunged legal form into crisis. From the bourgeois state of law, we have moved to a de facto or state of exception. The ever-increasing indeterminacy experienced by legal norms leads to their growing incapacity to mediate conflicts, and instead, they have been openly supplanted by the effectiveness of acts of force as the criterion of validity. More than the abstract rights of each legal subject, what ultimately prevails is the actual balance of power. Hence the renewed debate surrounding the concrete conditions that the historical process of the progressive extinction of the legal form as the predominant mode of social regulation must assume, and the empowerment of a new, non-legal, and communizing mode of regulation as an expression of the real movement of a new, non-capitalist socioeconomic formation that is already emerging as a possibility.

CLASS 2: Legal production in the context of accumulation by dispossession: privatization of public law and legal structures of dispossession in the context of current globalization/deglobalization

Teacher: Aleida Hernández Cervantes

Conceptual summary of the class

The purpose of this class is to offer an analytical and critical overview of the production of regulations resulting from the processes of economic globalization, especially those related to the current phase of capitalism (accumulation by dispossession).
The normative plurality of our times has new producers of law, among which are international financial organizations, transnational lobbies and organizations that dispute the meaning and content of current legal regulation.
These are material sources of law that have emerged from processes of accumulation by dispossession, which center on the privatization of the public and the commons. This has brought about substantial changes in the relationship between the public and private spheres; it is possible to speak of a public-private partnership, the privatization of public law, and legal structures of dispossession, to mention just a few of the legal manifestations of these changes.
From a critical legal perspective, we are obliged to account for the characterization of these new transnational legal productions of a neoconservative nature, as well as the consequences they generate for the existence and full exercise of social, collective and natural rights, and the challenges that legal production faces in the current context of globalization and deglobalization.

CLASS 3: Legal warfare

Teacher: César Pérez Lizasuain

Conceptual summary of the class

The original use of the concept of “lawfare” by John Carlson and Neville Yeomans in 1975 essentially constitutes a critique of the adversarial, instrumental, and commercial nature inherent in law itself, at least in its Western form. As such, law becomes a weapon for waging war by other means. That is “lawfare”: adversarial and accusatory words, laws, and judicial processes replace weapons and military conflicts. And, according to these authors, to overcome the structural limitations of law, it would be necessary to promote another mode of social regulation, anchored in societal, communal, and consensual norms. Subsequently, the concept of “lawfare” followed a different path, far removed from this initial critique of the very form of Western capitalist law. On the one hand, beginning in 2001 in the United States, “lawfare” has been characterized within national security doctrines as a weapon at the service of insurgent movements. It is also used as a tool by progressive movements or groups against right-wing governments, rulers, former rulers, and others, or those allied with the US, to hold them accountable for crimes against humanity. Another aspect of this exclusive attribution of legal warfare or “lawfare” to a single political sector is its current use in Latin America to refer to the “misuse” of the liberal-capitalist rule of law, including its judicial system, to persecute rulers, former rulers, or representatives of the left in general. However, beyond the conceptual disputes surrounding “lawfare,” if we consider the reality of the material deployment of legal warfare in the contemporary world, it is, at its core, nothing more than the strategic and combative use of the law by both sides.

CLASS 1: From Colombia to Chile: beginning, crisis and end of the new Latin American constitutionalism

Teacher: Albert Noguera

Conceptual summary of the class

In the 1990s and 2000s, coinciding in several countries with the rise and access to government of left-wing political projects, the Andean region of Latin America experienced a strengthening of the idea of ​​constitutionalism and the emergence of constituent processes that led to new Constitutions in countries such as Colombia (1991), Venezuela (1999), Ecuador (1998 and

2008) or Bolivia (2009). These new Latin American constitutions created their own constitutional form, recognizable in many elements that are clearly different from, and especially provocative of, those traditionally considered correct in classical constitutional doctrine. They established new texts that recognized the plurinational character of the states, guaranteed social rights, moved beyond delegated liberal democracy, and democratized the economy, thus opening a wave of hope among the popular sectors of the entire region.

This session will focus on analyzing: first, the defining characteristics of the constitutional model established by these Constitutions; second, an assessment of their implementation during the decades they were in effect, culminating in their crisis and eventual demise, most recently manifested in the failure of the constituent process and the rejection of the 2022 Chilean Constitution; and third, reflecting on the lessons we can learn from these processes for future scenarios.

CLASS 2: The Fourth Transformation in Mexico: Reform and radical transformation of the State, Law and Mexican society today?

Teacher: Mylai Burgos Matamoros

Conceptual summary of the class

Mexico has been undergoing a transformation since 2018, when MORENA came to power through electoral insurgency. This political party is the product of anti-neoliberal left-wing struggles. With this administration, the Fourth Transformation (4T), a post-neoliberal process, began. Within this framework, internal economic reforms are being implemented, geared towards industrialization and development projects (nearshoring). At the same time, energy and mineral resources have been legally protected and are now largely managed by the State. A fiscal policy has been implemented, eliminating tax defaults and exemptions in this area. These measures form the basis for a social project of wealth redistribution, supported by social programs enshrined in the Constitution. Other programs continue to expand to benefit diverse social groups and sectors, such as women, Indigenous peoples, farmers, and students, as well as areas of food sovereignty, education, health, and housing.
A reform has been implemented to benefit indigenous peoples, strengthening their recognition as subjects of public law. Furthermore, far-reaching state reforms are underway: judicial reform, reform of autonomous constitutional bodies, and, soon, electoral reform.
All of the above encompasses a path of political, social, and economic transformation that has impacted the Mexican State and Law as a process of transition, where the new is not yet fully born, while the old is not yet fully dead. Many political, legal, and social practices still pose a challenge to radical change in our country.
The objective of this class is to carry out a political, legal and social analysis of the 4T, traversed by political economy in the context of the crisis of global capitalism and the hegemonic power of the US, our main trading partner.

CLASS 3: The situation of human rights today in Our America

Teacher: Alejandro Rosillo

Conceptual summary of the class

This paper will analyze the diverse discourses on human rights that have developed in Latin America as ideological moments of political praxis. Based on this analysis, it will examine the reality being shaped by different actors in the region through their use of human rights discourse, and analyze how international and national institutions, as well as legal instruments, operate within these processes.

CLASS 1: International law in a period of geostrategic transition.

Teacher: Carlos Rivera Lugo

Conceptual summary of the class

This paper will analyze the challenges facing international law today, particularly its weakening in the 21st century. It will begin with the theoretical framework of Eugeni B. Pashukanis (1891-1937) regarding the nature of international law in periods of transition, such as the present, in which a restructuring of power relations is taking place at the international level. Historically, international law has been de facto a law of domination at the service of capitalist powers and states, although it has also been a field in which class and people struggles against this domination have unfolded. Legal relations, both national and international, are in this sense ultimately mediated by force. However, periods of transition are characterized by a series of conflicts and crises resulting from the fact that those who have dominated until now are no longer able to maintain absolute dominance, while the new pole or poles of power that are emerging and pushing for a new balance of power in the world have not yet managed to consolidate and impose themselves. Even if international law no longer serves the dominant powers to impose their will as it has until now, it begins to experience a problematic existence. Hence the current insistence of the United States and the European Union on unilaterally imposing a new and biased “rules-based international order” in place of international law. From this conceptual framework, the nature of the current conflicts in Ukraine and Palestine will be critically examined, as well as their growing geopolitical impact on Latin America and the Caribbean in light of the current reconfiguration of global power relations. Finally, the implications of the expansionist agenda put forward by the new US administration under Donald Trump and what appears to be an attempt to aggressively reactivate [the existing order] will be addressed. 

CLASS 2: Economic wars (sanctions), foreign interference and migration crisis.

Teacher: Sonia Boueiri Bassil

Conceptual summary of the class

Economic warfare is another form of warfare. It attacks and destroys countries' economies indirectly through the international financial and commercial system. Executive orders are used to impose the extraterritorial law of powerful nations. Combined with interventionist policies (whether overt or covert), this generates multidimensional crises in the targeted countries. This is the so-called multifaceted war, which aims to be a "weapon of extortion" to compel sovereign nations to adopt certain behaviors, affecting their right to sustainable development and violating international norms of non-interference. Despite their opacity within the "international order," unilateral coercive measures, also called sanctions, violate international law (especially humanitarian law) and can even be classified as crimes against humanity. They also constitute modern mechanisms for the enrichment of major powers through the dispossession of the vast resources existing in Latin America. Currently, almost one-third of the world's population is a victim of these measures. One of its most devastating consequences is migration for economic reasons. Thousands, or even millions, of Latin Americans have left their homelands in search of a better economic future, which, in most cases, never materializes despite their enormous efforts and sacrifices.
Today we are witnessing the treatment of Latin American migrants, adding xenophobic, even criminal, policies to their human tragedy. Neoliberal globalization applies to capital and wealth, but not to human beings. The sovereign right claimed by the US and Europe to decide on migration in their countries transcends legal limits and is imposed by force. In this class, we will address these issues through specific cases in Latin America and the Caribbean.

CLASS 3: Cognitive Warfare

Teacher: Fernando Giuliani

Conceptual summary of the class

The challenges of new technologies. The economic and legal warfare surrounding these technologies and their applications. The case of the July 2024 elections in Venezuela. The death of truth in the new digital order. The digital monopoly of Google, Facebook, and X. “Fake news” and the biased narratives of mainstream media. Social networks, artificial intelligence, and algorithmic control in the culture war. The phenomenon of censorship of books, content, and media for reasons of national security. The criminalization of freedom of expression and protest. 

CLASS 1: The ongoing restructuring of the international order

Teacher: Sergio Rodríguez Gelfenstein

Conceptual summary of the class

For five centuries, the Atlantic Ocean, and Europe in particular, has been the epicenter of global power. The emergence of the United States as an imperialist power at the end of the 19th century began to reshape this dominance. The two shores of the North Atlantic became the centers of power. This was definitively established after the United States purchased Europe through the Marshall Plan. At the end of the war, consensus was reached in the political and economic spheres, but not in military and security matters. Consequently, the United States created NATO in 1949, which effectively meant the military occupation of Europe through peaceful means and the obligation of the countries of the Old Continent to pay Washington for its security. This process of expansion, control, and global dominance, now without the counterweight of the Soviet Union, was carried out relentlessly for the last three decades. It reached a breaking point when the West directly threatened the security of Russia, another nuclear power. Its inevitable response in February 2022 has finalized the dynamics generated by these events. It is in this context that a new era and a new world are taking shape. The primary center of global power is shifting from the North Atlantic to the vast Eurasian landmass where the United States has no influence. Eurasia is advancing in the development of instruments of cooperation and integration without US interference, using methods that do not aim for subjugation or underdevelopment, while simultaneously guaranteeing peace based on respect for self-determination and sovereignty. In a broader context, the BRICS (which already has a GDP larger than that of the G-7) has received expressions of interest from around 20 countries to join, forming the primary link in this emerging world order.

CLASS 2: CELAC: a forum for integrationist aspirations not under tutelage in a world order in transition

Teacher: Luis Lorenzo Córdova Arellano

Conceptual summary of the class

Critics of the inter-American system see the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) as a real opportunity for the region to (progressively) become a relevant international actor, without the "tutelage" of the United States. Can the subcontinent integrate by establishing an institutional framework within CELAC? If so, what kind of institutional framework should it adopt? Should it move closer to the institutional framework of ALBA, as originally conceived by Cuba and Venezuela? CELAC is: the most important regional mechanism for integration since the Amphictyonic Congress of 1826 convened by Simón Bolívar; the most important forum for integrationist aspirations among the 16 existing forums, the only one that brings together all 33 countries (the 34th country should be Puerto Rico); a superior mechanism for political coordination, which emerged from the Rio Group; and a pre-integration forum that operates through summits, meetings, and pro tempore presidencies, without the presence of Canada and the United States. Its very existence is already relevant, especially in light of the OAS and the challenges recently posed by the US to national sovereignty in the region, particularly regarding migration, drug trafficking, and the Panama Canal. CELAC is a pre-integration forum of independent strategic regionalism that adheres to the principle of ideological pluralism, above all because it is not constrained by Cold War thinking, as was the case with the founding of the OAS. It is a pre-integration forum, as it still lacks intergovernmental and supranational bodies, but it is a significant geopolitical entity because it brings together all the countries of the region without oversight. It is a forum with integrationist aspirations, founded on principles of complementarity and non-duplication, and on democracy with peaceful development and social justice for all.

CLASS 3: Initiatives for the reconfiguration of the global economic (commercial, monetary and financial) system.

Teacher: Pasqualina Curcio Curcio

Conceptual summary of the class

The power of money in global hegemony. The fall of the petrodollar and the reconfiguration of a new global monetary and financial architecture based on respect for international law, the self-determination of peoples, and multipolarity.
For 75 years, the US has maintained monetary and financial hegemony since the 1944 agreement that the dollar would be the world's reserve currency. In 1971, the US government unilaterally decided to suspend the dollar's convertibility to gold, announced the creation of "trust-based" currencies, and in 1976, together with Saudi Arabia, created the petrodollar and the SWIFT payment system.
However, the economic and financial crisis in the US, the fall of the petrodollar, and the need for global economic, monetary, and financial restructuring are becoming increasingly evident.
In this context, initiatives for global monetary and financial reconfiguration have emerged, proposed by the BRICS, among others. In response to this initiative, the current US president threatened to increase tariffs on products from that bloc to 100%, which would intensify the trade war that Donald Trump himself declared against China in 2008. The pressure exerted by the US government on Panama, which culminated in the non-renewal of the memorandum of understanding with China in 2017 within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, further underscores the US's intention to maintain its commercial, monetary, and financial hegemony.
The objective of this class is to review and analyze the initiatives to reconfigure the global commercial, monetary and financial system within the framework of international law, the self-determination of peoples and multipolarity, as well as the progress of these initiatives and the reactions by the US.

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Classes will begin in September and will conclude in December 2025.

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Exceptional Criteria: In exceptional cases, and within the first 20 days of the start of the Advanced Diploma program, students may write to [email protected] requesting to withdraw and stating the reasons. After evaluation of the case, a response will be sent to the request. If approved, the student may resume the Advanced Diploma program if a new cohort is offered the following year. After this period has elapsed since the start of the course, no requests will be accepted.

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Yes, the advanced diploma is certified by CLACSO. The diploma will be sent digitally and is completely free of charge.

Payment can be made in one installment, by credit card or bank transfer. We also offer the option of paying in 3 installments.

Yes. There will be discounts for students belonging to CLACSO Member Centers and CLACSO Associated Centers, for CLACSO Associate Researchers, and for all those who pay within the discount period.

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The Advanced Diploma program integrates a dynamic of asynchronous and synchronous classes. Classes are primarily asynchronous. The schedule for synchronous sessions will be communicated by the Diploma coordinator at the beginning of the program, and participation in these sessions is not a prerequisite for passing the program.