Redefining the Abduction of Children: Legal Truth in Post-Dictatorial Argentine Courts of Law

Abstract

This chapter demonstrates how Argentine law court sentences have constructed a “legal truth” regarding the unlawfully appropriated children of people “disappeared” during the last military dictatorship (1976–1983). There are two discursive processes involved in the construction of that truth. On one hand, the courts reinterpret the crime of “abduction of minors” to emphasize the damage done to families in the exercise of their rights, and on the other hand, they link illegal appropriation to the military government’s counterinsurgency policies. Lastly, in the construction of this “legal truth,” the sentences employ other discourses, particularly those of genealogy, psychoanalysis, and human rights.

Citation

Osenda, N.V. (2013), "Redefining the Abduction of Children: Legal Truth in Post-Dictatorial Argentine Courts of Law", Sarat, A. (Ed.) Studies in Law, Politics, and Society (Studies in Law, Politics, and Society, Vol. 61), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1059-4337(2013)0000061004