LEGAL EDUCATION AND CITIZEN AUTONOMY: NORMATIVE DEVELOPMENT AND INSTITUTIONAL BELONGING IN THE CONTEMPORARY CONTEXT

Abstract

This research investigates the extent to which legal education can contribute to strengthening civic autonomy and reducing social vulnerabilities linked to contemporary institutional alienation. It is premised on the understanding that the effective exercise of citizenship depends not only on the formal existence of rights but also on the capacity to comprehend normative structures and participate consciously in public life. The study is qualitative in nature, relying on bibliographic and documentary analysis and drawing upon authors from the fields of Law, Philosophy, Sociology, and Education—such as José Murilo de Carvalho, Sérgio Buarque de Holanda, Amartya Sen, Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Immanuel Kant, Dermeval Saviani, Manuel Castells, and Zygmunt Bauman. The research analyzes historical interpretations regarding the formation of Brazilian citizenship, discussions on education as a process of fostering autonomy, and studies concerning access to justice, legal literacy, school mediation, institutional belonging, and contemporary civic education initiatives. Throughout the work, the term "interpretative dependency" is employed as a descriptive analytical category to understand situations where individuals—despite formally holding rights—struggle to independently interpret the normative and institutional mechanisms required to exercise citizenship. The results indicate that educational initiatives focused on institutional familiarization, democratic conflict mediation, and civic education can help expand social autonomy and strengthen democratic forms of institutional belonging, provided they are neither reduced to the mere technical transmission of legal content nor associated with authoritarian practices of social discipline. The study concludes that legal education can be understood as an educational pathway aimed at institutional familiarization and the strengthening of conscious democratic participation.