Civil disobedience in Argentina

Abstract

The recent economic crisis in Argentina led to the loss of identity of the country's political institutions. The measure of the suspension of freedom and of the guarantee of individual rights provoked a generalized civil disobedience which led thousands of people to peacefully demonstrate their repudiation of Fernando de la Rua's government. This spontaneous, unorganized and voluntary action by the citizens served, among other things, to form a direct primary self-determination of the will of the people and a self-understanding of the democratic character of civil society. The justification of the disobedience was based on a question of rights. All the demonstrators asserted that they had the right to disobey because disobedience, in certain circumstances, was a human right. However, can civil disobedience, in a constitutional state, be an authentic right? In what circumstances, in the legal context and outside the normal rights of resistance such as strike action, demonstations etc., can a legal norm be disobeyed?