Mirow on Léon Duguit and the Social Function of Property in Argentina @fiulaw

M. C. Mirow, Florida International University College of Law, is publishing Léon Duguit and the Social Function of Property in Argentina in Léon Duguit and the Social Obligation Norm of Property: A Translation and Global Exploration (Paul Babie and Jessica Viven-Wilksch, eds., Cham: Springer, forthcoming). Here is the abstract.

Despite its early introduction to Argentina in 1911, the doctrine of the social function of property was not quickly appropriated into the Argentine legal system. Only after a period of more than thirty-five years did this concept of property find expression in this country through the Constitution of 1949, the Peronist constitution drafted under the guidance of the Arturo Enrique Sampay. Duguit's writings formed part of a broader understanding of the social function of property that was informed by various scholars and sources, and particularly by works on Christian humanism and the social doctrine of the Roman Catholic church. Although mentioned in the debates of the Argentine Constitution of 1949, Duguit was only one of a variety of sources employed by advocates of the doctrine, and his direct influence in the area was significantly less than one might expect considering the historical link between his lectures in Buenos Aires and the creation of the doctrine.

Download the essay from SSRN at the link.

Police In Buenos Aires in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century

Agustin Elias Casagrande, CONICET-IDIHCS-UNLP, has published 'The Active Arm of the Government' The Police of Buenos Aires in the First Half of 19th Century as Max Planck Institute for European Legal History Research Paper Series No. 2015-03. Here is the abstract.

In the first half of 19th century, the Río de La Plata was involved in a process of militarization and changing of political orders. During this time the conflictive relation between the old schemes of government and the tendency to centralize and to create new structures of power and social control was extended all across the territory. Among those Institutions thought to provide new forms of discipline, appeared the Police, created in 1812, which immediately would be involved in a tension between the local authorities and the central government. In this article, by analyzing the juridical concepts deeply rooted in legal reasoning used by the actors to create the force, it will be explained some structural elements of the meaning and logic of police order in the Spanish legal tradition (domestic government, localization, negotiation, etc.). After the study of those categories, inscribed in the legal sources which breathed life to the police´s institution, it will be examined the problems that faced the diverse attempts of building a central police-government, especially, in front of a traditional negotiable juridical culture that persisted in the mentality of the agents of Buenos Aires in the period comprehended between 1812-1853.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.