The Judiciary and slave labor: the geographic criterion and the peasant victim

This article analyzes the leading case constituted by Special Appeal (RE) 1323708, which will be ruled upon by the Brazilian Supreme Court (STF) and is expected to be subject to widespread repercussion. The case will assess whether geographical and cultural criteria should be considered in determining whether an individual has been submitted to conditions analogous to slavery. The issue explored is: how does geographic location, the object of the leading case (RE 1323708), contribute to invisibilize the peasant victim of slave labor? The defended hypothesis is that the Judiciary, in judgments that use geographic location as a basis, is guided by a stigmatized view of the enslaved peasant subject, a victim of the frontier. The work of Warat, Perelman and Foucault are used as the main theoretical framework in the conduction of a qualitative study aimed at generating interpretative hypotheses regarding the meanings associated to peasant citizenship that support the geographic location argument. As a result, a contradictory relationship between the Judiciary and the peasant victim is identified. The main conclusion presented in this study involves an understanding that geographical criteria stem from a judicial vision that both hinges upon and helps to institutionalize the stigmatization of peasants.

Key words:
Slave labor; Geographic location; Victim; Stigma; Peasant