"From Social Movement to Legal Form"

Abstract:

"Do social upheavals bring about lasting change? Does uprising and civil revolution transform participation in society and, ultimately, the relationship of citizens to law? Drawing on theoretical perspectives from post-structuralism and anarchism, I consider ‘alternative thinking of alternatives’ (B de Sousa Santos) in evaluations of change and the success or failure of social revolution. I specifically focus on the case of Ukraine, which is a state that is uncomfortably situated as in a period of ‘transition’, ‘transformation’ and ongoing conflict. Ukraine is a turbulent border region characterised by contestations of empire, governance and resource control. However the 2014 Maidan/Revolution of Dignity offers a specific event through which to think about how social change is assessed (‘post’ revolution), and how change amongst people—thought of as beings in the territory of the state—can be a constituent element of law itself"

This presentation is part of a larger research project that uses Ukraine’s Maidan/Revolution of Dignity as a case study to open up the definition, analysis and methodology of transformation and transitional law. This project involves a mixed methodology of qualitative interviews and critical analysis of existing literature to re-visit theoretical frameworks used to assess transition, transformation, social movement and its jurisprudence. Rather than focus on formal governance or legal administration the interviews aim to illustrate how transformation, transition and change are felt, or not, from the perspectives of people at work: persons working in the informal economy as market vendors in 4 regions of Ukraine: Lviv, Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa.