Join us in the Latin American Studies Building Gildred room for a talk and Q&A with Ingo Rohrer
Abstract: In times of alternative facts and post-truth, the justice system, with its claim to rationality, verifiable methods, and stringent processes, positions itself as an institution in which positive truths and incontrovertible bodies of knowledge are still produced. In my paper, I draw on ethnographic fieldwork in the criminal justice system in Argentina to show that despite such claims, the justice system itself can be understood as characterized by profound skepticism and mistrust. Mistrust is not only directed against defendants and witnesses whose testimonies are doubted but also against legal professionals who are suspected of using dishonest means in the legal competition. Whenever fields of non-knowledge emerge in the proceedings which cannot be overcome by rational means, the legal professionals suspect lies, collusion, and manipulation. They react with imaginative thinking and ad-hoc conclusions to these fields of non-knowledge and establish veritable social imaginaries in which implicit criticism of the power relations within the justice system is expressed. The interplay of mistrust, ignorance, and imagination in the justice system thus produces a realpolitik of constant doubt with far-reaching consequences for the functioning of the justice system. I will discuss in my paper whether this realpolitik has to be framed only in negative terms.
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