RULE OF LAW, DEMOCRACY AND CITIZENSHIP: ON THE OTHER HAND OF INCLUSION, A PATH OF EXCLUSION

Abstract

Dear reader,
It is with immense satisfaction that we present this collective work, the result of the collective academic effort and sensitivity of a group of researchers committed to the most urgent social issues of our time. The book you are now reading, whether in physical or digital format, represents more than a collection of academic articles, as it is a sincere invitation to dialogue and critical reflection on the most urgently important themes, which is why they are addressed here.
Organized by Professor Dr. José Welhinjton Cavalcante Rodrigues and master's students Ana Kelly Almeida da Costa and Arnaldo Ferreira de Oliveira Junior, this book brings together works developed within the scope of the Master's Program in Legal Sciences at Veni Creator Christian University.
The texts gathered here arose from legitimate and diverse concerns in the face of the profound inequalities, violence, and exclusions that have marked our society throughout history, especially when directed at women, Black populations, people in vulnerable situations, dissident bodies, and historically marginalized groups. As you browse through the pages of this book, you can find profound, rigorous, and sensitive analyses of urgent issues such as gender violence, environmental racism, the criminalization of poverty, the precariousness of life, and the challenges surrounding access to justice in Brazil.

Each chapter demonstrates care and sensitivity in its elaboration, a care adopted to shed light on specific aspects of the problems addressed, always based on a solid theoretical foundation, which includes special emphasis on dialogues established with thinkers such as Judith Butler, Loïc Wacquant, Anna Loretoni, René Girard, Achille Mbembe, and others, as well as empirical data that demonstrate the urgency of the issues addressed.

The authors who make up this collection are academic researchers and professionals who work directly in the Brazilian justice system, such as judicial analysts, court officers, social workers, and public defenders, among others. This dual theoretical and practical insertion gives the texts a particular level of detail, considering that the theoretical reflections are constantly confronted with the reality experienced in the courts, police stations, services for victims of violence, and in the spaces of the Judiciary.
This is a space that allows for readings on how patriarchy structures power relations that make women vulnerable, especially Black women, making their lives "not grievable," as Butler teaches. In addition, it will be possible to reflect on the subtleties of institutional violence, which often disguises itself as legal neutrality to ensure the maintenance of the status quo that has always been defined by the dominant classes.
Through reading, it will be possible to understand how environmental racism unequally distributes environmental risks and benefits, penalizing the poorest and racialized populations. Furthermore, there is a strong reflection on how the apparently beneficial penal transaction can hide mechanisms of control and criminalization of poverty. On the other hand, it will also be possible to understand how the homeless population is systematically made invisible, transformed into "disposable lives" by a State that oscillates between negligence and repression.
But this book is not limited to diagnosing problems. On the contrary, each chapter points out possible, albeit challenging, paths to building a more just and egalitarian society that values ​​the realization of human dignity. Whether through the effective implementation of public policies, the intersectional application of laws, the strengthening of human rights protection mechanisms, or collective awareness of the structures of oppression, the texts gathered here remind us that transformation is always possible and necessary, despite being difficult.

In light of this, I invite you, dear reader, to delve into these pages with an open and critical mind. May this reading be able to awaken questions and, above all, the desire to contribute to the construction of a world where all lives matter, where all people have access to justice, and where fundamental rights are not the privilege of a few, but the reality of all.
Together, I hope we can make a collective commitment to value and defend dissenting themes within the legal field, reflecting on issues that extend beyond the dominant spaces of our area of ​​work. Let us make this book an instrument of dialogue and transformation in our professional, academic, and civic spheres. As the authors of this work rightly remind us, knowledge only fulfills its true function when it translates into an ethical commitment to others and into effective action in the pursuit of justice.

Social interaction.

Enjoy your reading!

Professor Dr. Samara Taiana de Lima Silva, November 2025.

(Estácio University Center of Natal)