Indigenous and State Justice in Ecuador
Location
PANEL: Hispanic Studies Honors: Highlighting Cultural Memory and Social Justice
CELA A019
Document Type
Presentation - Open Access
Start Date
4-28-2023 11:00 AM
End Date
4-28-2023 12:00 PM
Abstract
Since the establishment of the 2008 constitution in Ecuador, the country has recognized two justice systems, both the state and the indigenous justice system. The two systems are distinct due to the cultural context in which they emerged, their operation and their purposes. The state justice system, which arose within the context of legal positivism, relies more on punitive logic, in which prison is the solution to crime, while indigenous justice is based on the ancestral practices of each community to restore harmony and inner peace. This study will attempt to analyze the practices of the two systems and the strategies they use to resolve conflicts in very different contexts. In the first section, the practices and functioning of state justice will be analyzed, with a focus on both the historical context and the present day situation. The second part will focus on the Kichwa communities, primarily those of the Saraguro people, and a comparative analysis will be made with the first chapter. The third part will compare these two systems to the theories of restorative justice and criminal abolitionism, with the ultimate goal of imagining justice practices that are focused on strategies for offenders to assume responsibility for offenses committed, restore the damage done to the victim, and reintegrate the offender into the social fabric after serving their sentence.
Keywords:
Justice systems, Restorative justice, Indigenous justice
Recommended Citation
Lausch, Ava, "Indigenous and State Justice in Ecuador" (2023). Research Symposium. 5.
https://digitalcommons.oberlin.edu/researchsymp/2023/presentations/5
Major
Hispanic Studies; Neuroscience
Project Mentor(s)
Ana Diaz Burgos, Hispanic Studies
2023
Indigenous and State Justice in Ecuador
PANEL: Hispanic Studies Honors: Highlighting Cultural Memory and Social Justice
CELA A019
Since the establishment of the 2008 constitution in Ecuador, the country has recognized two justice systems, both the state and the indigenous justice system. The two systems are distinct due to the cultural context in which they emerged, their operation and their purposes. The state justice system, which arose within the context of legal positivism, relies more on punitive logic, in which prison is the solution to crime, while indigenous justice is based on the ancestral practices of each community to restore harmony and inner peace. This study will attempt to analyze the practices of the two systems and the strategies they use to resolve conflicts in very different contexts. In the first section, the practices and functioning of state justice will be analyzed, with a focus on both the historical context and the present day situation. The second part will focus on the Kichwa communities, primarily those of the Saraguro people, and a comparative analysis will be made with the first chapter. The third part will compare these two systems to the theories of restorative justice and criminal abolitionism, with the ultimate goal of imagining justice practices that are focused on strategies for offenders to assume responsibility for offenses committed, restore the damage done to the victim, and reintegrate the offender into the social fabric after serving their sentence.
