O animal outro que humano: personalidade jurídica no cosmopolitismo jurídico – a virada ontológica a partir das elefantas

Abstract

This research proposes an epistemological and legal reconfiguration aimed at recognizing the non-human animal as a natural person and subject of rights, within the context of Latin America's Westernized legal cosmopolitanism. By critically examining modern and binary paradigms that position the human as the sole normative subject and legitimizer of conduct and rights, the study seeks to break away from the dominant anthropocentric tradition, which is upheld by hegemonic stereotypes of humanity based on normative standards such as the human/hetero/normative model. The central problem lies in investigating, through the identification of the human animal as the dominant social actor, the extent to which it is possible to construct a new legal-political epistemology that allows for the deconstruction of exclusionary social imaginaries and the consequent formulation of a new legal category of person applicable to non-human animals. The hypothesis is that approaches grounded in cosmopolitics, decolonial epistemologies, and queer theory—through shared values, capacities, and processes of queerization—create the conditions for constructing this new legal horizon in the Anthropocene. The general objective is to establish the foundations for recognizing non-human animals as subjects of rights with legal personality, through the lens of critical cosmopolitanism and anti-modern approaches. To this end, specific objectives include analyzing the legal constitution of the animal in modern theory, investigating anti-modern and decolonial perspectives, deconstructing stereotypes that define the human ideal, identifying scientific arguments used to justify non-human domination, analyzing social markers that legitimize behaviors and exclusions, and presenting the empirical case of elephants trafficked from Asia to Latin America as a symbolic example of the need for legal re-signification. The methodology adopted is phenomenological-hermeneutic, combined with dialectical analysis, aimed at challenging the binary concepts inherited from modernity and enabling a reinterpretation of law. Language is understood as a central element in meaning-making and in bridging tradition with critical awareness, recognizing that the construction of rights must reflect the complexity of human and non-human relationships and experiences. In this sense, the thesis proposes an interpretive shift in the legal field, guided by interspecies justice, in order to re-signify the legal personality of the non-human animal in light of contemporary ethical, philosophical, and environmental demands.