Disentangling the Vernacular in Bolivia and Decolonising the Law

This piece critically engages with the spaces of encounter between indigenous peoples and the (Bolivian) State by exploring indigenous subordination and inequalities in a socio-legal sense. It explores ‘epistemological oppression’ and ‘epistemological hesitance’ as it arises and is being responded to in i) the vernacular, in empirical realities, ii) in constitutional law and its principles, iii) and in international legal orders including indigenous peoples’ rights regimes. In a first step, indigenous knowledge is conceptualised and contextualised, understanding said encounters in the light of Bolivian constitutionalism and recent regressive indigenous politics under the intermittent right-wing government. Empirical, grassroots perspectives provide further insights into power dynamics and internalised asymmetries which become relevant to understand the knowledge-law nexus. In turn, we disentangle the constitutive elements of neo-colonial subordination, drawing on concepts of sovereignty, self-determination, citizenship and collective rights, and political recognition. Finally, hope is placed in the decolonising function of the law, international law in particular in the way it may reposition indigenous peoples vis-à-vis the State. A dedicated focus is placed on indigenous knowledge and its consideration in current jurisprudential developments. Constitutional law – Andean developments in particular – too is taken as a legal starting point for contextualising indigenous-State encounters, seen with decolonising lenses. In that sense, contemporary State architectures serve as unavoidable spaces of articulation that may reinforce neo-colonial tendencies through classical Western constitutionalism or create ambitious venues for indigenous rights to be recognised in a plural legal landscape.