The concept of culture in law studies

Abstract

The purpose of this report is to present the concept of culture which, because it has not received much attention recently in the field of Law Studies, it is used with confusing meanings and subordinated to an evolutionary conceptualization. The irruption of new rights through the concepts of ‘cultural plurality’ and ‘pluriethnicity’ has established a new belligerent scenario on this concept for juridical operativeness. In this way, the judicial agency has put itself in conflict within the vindictive processes that attempt to reach equality through an unequal treatment of difference. In order to understand this process from the field of Law, the concept of culture must be re-defined by freeing it from the evolutionary and colonial views still anchored in the disciplinary matrix. Key words: Law; Culture; Pluriculturalism; Evolutionism; Individual and collective rights