ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the rhetorical persistence of “civilization and barbarism” as a heuristic device that locates law firmly on the side of civilization, equating as well, lawlessness and barbarism. It describes its emergence as a foundational metaphor for the republican projects of the nineteenth century, and the changes and continuities surrounding its persistence throughout various nation-building processes, in spite of the significant differences between Latin American countries. The chapter also suggests that resisting the seduction of pitting law against violence can be quite productive for law and society studies in the region, building from the location of the two phenomena in a single field. This would allow for the emergence of scholarship that interrogates the relationship between law, especially liberal and progressive law, and the violence that shapes the continent.
