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The Model of Healing Justice of the Arhuaco People. A Study of Comparative Law from the Global South

  • Edwin Rubio Medina ORCID logo EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: December 24, 2025
Global Jurist
From the journal Global Jurist

Abstract

The emergence of the notion of the global South has revitalized the discipline of comparative law. However, most academic studies continue to discuss theories and values ​​established by European law. It reinforces the idea of sites of production of legal thought (in the global North) and sites of reception of legal thought (in the global South). In this article, the contributions of the Arhuaco Indigenous people’s curative justice system to the broader legal system are highlighted through fieldwork conducted in Colombia. This interdisciplinary work sheds new light on ways to rethink criminal law, seeking a truly therapeutic, holistic, and community-based justice system.


Corresponding author: Edwin Rubio Medina, Faculty of Economiy, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal; and Professor-Researcher, Faculty of Law, University of Ibagué, Ibagué, Colombia, E-mail:

Funding source: University of Ibagué

Award Identifier / Grant number: 25-042-SINT

  1. Research funding: The research was supported by Centro de Estudos Sociais, Universidade de Coimbra with the doi http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100014071 and University of Ibagué (25-042-SINT).

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Received: 2025-02-27
Accepted: 2025-09-17
Published Online: 2025-12-24

© 2025 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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