LAW, DISCOURSE AND POWER

Abstract

This essay aims to propose a theoretical model for legal discourse capable of simultaneously explaining the processes of the emergence of Law and its dialectical relationship with the deep strata of reality. The central hypothesis is that Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), particularly the dialectical-relational approach proposed by Norman Fairclough, when articulated with Roy Bhaskar’s critical realist ontology, offers the necessary theoretical-methodological resources to overcome the limitations of traditional approaches, enabling a conception of Law as a socio-historical practice marked by structural contradictions (antinomies) and as an intermediate entity mediating the relationship between social structure and human agency.