Direito Achado no Mar: uma perspectiva do constitucionalismo haitiano

Abstract

This term paper investigates Haitian constitutionalism from the perspective of Paul Gilroy's “Black Atlantic”. The aim is to propose the term “Law Found at Sea” as a legal-discursive paradigm that reflects the struggle and discursive practices of the enslaved and freed blacks produced through transatlantic flows, redirecting guarantees, freedom and citizenship from Haitian constitutionalism. The study positions the Haitian Revolution as an important political movement that led to the formation of the first constitution to abolish slavery. Based on this, Michel Foucault's discourse analysis methodology linked to the Black Atlantic theoretical framework was used to analyze the categories of freedom and citizenship through the selected texts. The results highlight Haiti's Constitutions of 1801 and 1805 as a break with the power and knowledge mechanisms of colonialism, as well as a process that wove a new discursive formation rooted in transatlantic enunciative practices. The final considerations highlight the importance of locating the political-legal movement unleashed in Haiti in constitutional history, based on the primacies of the global South.