Law and the Representation of Violent Political Protest: Analysis of a Judicial File of the Chilean Outburst

Abstract

Law constitutes a device that serves the purpose of naturalizing the existing social order. This is because the cycle of protests observed since October 2019 in Chile, insofar as it was oriented to produce changes in the social order, puts pressure on the Law. Hence, it is possible to expect that the representations of political protest produced from the legal field during this cycle operate in diverse and opposing senses. In order to investigate the understanding of these meanings and to know how they are confronted, a judicial process oriented to the punishment of actions developed in the framework of these protests is examined. This type of analysis is relevant because what is debated in court has an impact on the discussion and definition of the content of the political rights of citizens. The proposed research is a contribution to the socio-legal understanding of protest, a right at the heart of democracy.