“Lawfare is the use of the legal system to discredit and persecute political enemies.”

Adoración Guaman Hernández, a tenured professor of labor law and social security at the University of Valencia, Spain, interviewed on InfoCLACSO on February 17, gave a detailed overview of the history and current state of lawfare, focusing her presentation on the cases of Brazil and Ecuador.

Interviewed by Gustavo Lema

He defined lawfare as “the use of the legal system to discredit and persecute political enemies. The judiciary is used to interfere in the realm of political and legislative decisions.” He also maintained that “Ecuador is a textbook example of lawfare regarding the accusation of rebellion” and asserted that “in Brazil there have been countless attempts to politicize the judiciary.”

Adoración Guaman Hernández co-directs, along with Carol Proner, the CLACSO Working Group “Lex Mercatoria, Human Rights and Democracy.” A visiting professor at Paris-Nanterre, Universidad Libre in Colombia, and numerous Latin American universities, such as FLACSO-Ecuador, she collaborates regularly with social movements on the issues of human rights and business.

SEE ALSO:

Presentations by former Judge of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Raúl Zaffaroni, and by the Brazilian jurist, Carol Proner

“Challenges for Latin American democracies: From the National Security Doctrine to Lawfare”

Working Group on Lex Mercatoria, Human Rights and Democracy