Outlier jurists: three profiles

Abstract

This essay introduces critically three non-orthodox legal thinkers, who did their academic, political and professional careers independent from the conventional methods and cognitive scheme of positive law prevailing at the age of Brazilian industrial development (1940-1980). Under the influence of private law, that legal doctrine (legal positivism) wasn’t able to identify and evaluate critically the new problems and social conflicts produced by a State pattern of industrial development. The merit of these three non-orthodox legal thinkers was to understand creatively the new social reality, the political litigation and the legal disputes underlying to the urbanization process, the demographic growth and geo-ocuppational changes of Brazil.