Concept of vulnerability is debated during seminar in Germany
FGV was invited by University of Heidelberg to present and discuss the paper ‘Always invisible, yet obvious: the place of socially vulnerable citizens in Brazil’s legal education'.
José Garcez Ghirardi, professor of Ethics and Political Theory from FGV’s Sao Paulo Law School (Direito SP), was invited by University of Heidelberg to present and discuss the paper ‘Always invisible, yet obvious: the place of socially vulnerable citizens in Brazil’s legal education’. In the paper, the professor addresses the concept of vulnerability, relatively recent in Brazilian scholarly debate, under a perspective of legal education in the country.
“Although the concept of vulnerability has become apparently ubiquitous in the country, its ownership by legal and political discourse has taken on different meanings according to the various fields of law. For instance, if the Consumer Defense Code provides well-defined boundaries to the idea of vulnerability, the same cannot be said if the concept is analyzed from the perspective of other fields of law,” he explains.
According to the professor, some critics point out that the concept of vulnerability is intertwined with the concept of risk, or the concept of weaker position.
“Risk has a more structural dimension, while vulnerability has a more personal reach,” he explains, based on the theory of Quentin Skinner, a British historian and professor from University of Cambridge.
Garcez argues that the debate surrounding the interpretation of ‘vulnerable’ is important to reflect on the appropriation of the concept by legal education. In his paper, the professor states that most schools face difficulties when looking at the real world and incorporating the entire spectra of vulnerability in their teaching programs.
“Ultimately, this perception is essential to establish the role of legal education in the development of public policies,” he said.
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