Técnicos da legalidade: juristas e escrita das leis (Argentina e Brasil, primeira metade do século XX)

Abstract

This article analyzes the efforts to influence the drafting of legislation that Argentine and Brazilian lawyers developed during the first half of the 20th century. Establishing a dialogue between intellectual and legal histories, this analysis argues that jurists mobilized the claim that they were acting on purely “technical” grounds, with the support of supposedly objective forms of knowledge, in favor of a prominent public position for themselves and according to specific political interests. The contrast between the Brazilian and Argentine cases will allow for an evaluation of the mechanisms deployed and the results achieved in each of those national territories. This article thus sheds some light on phenomena that surpass borders, as well as on their local manifestations.