Trauma, Kollektivgefühle und das Recht

Abstract

Emotions permeate social life in all its areas. This also applies to law, especially in the context of human rights and the reappraisal of state injustice. The author examines the emotive permeation of law in the context of transitional justice using the recent criminal justice process of dealing with the dictatorship's past in Argentina. The focus is on collective emotional dynamics that have unfolded in the social and legal reappraisal in the field of tension between effervescent collective feelings, the rational logics of law, and its nonetheless "sacred" aura. The starting point for the empirical examination is the documentary film "Algo mío - Argentina's Stolen Children," which has won several awards and is included with the book. It expresses the ambivalences of an emotive theory of the transitory criminal process in impressive images and captivating stories.