The Bad Law: an explanation about the causes of institutional decline

Abstract

“Bad Law” is an implicit legal meta-theory that inhabits some legal traditions and that will make all the tools that can lead to institutional strength and the Rule of Law fail. The paradox is that one of the protective hypotheses of Bad Law is that, if it fails, it is the fault of the immorality of society and never of Bad Law itself, which makes it irrefutable, unfalsifiable and even invisible. In the legal tradition of Argentina, as in others, there would be this kind of “infection” and then, Bad Law would be what would weaken the institutions. The proposal is to explore the debate of the implicit legal meta-theories that determine that some countries have “Good Law” and their institutions are strong and effective while others, suffering from Bad Law, live stuck in institutional failure, injustice, corruption and inequity, as well as a lack of trust and any long-term predictability.