A desintegração do status quo: Direito e lutas sociais

Abstract

Based on Montesquieu's The spirit of laws and Carl Schmitt and Franz Neumann's writings, the article suggests that the simplicity of laws and the presence of an active judicial system is related to the democratic (or un-democratic) nature of societies. Law in the 20th century can be seen as the regulation of social inequalities and differences through special norms that are the result of democratic demands for new rights, which contribute to enhance the complexity of laws and the need of judicial intervention in order to confer meaning to these rights.