CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

This panel was presented by the workshop organizers as an intersection of Sociology and Law, as an invitation to think about how to establish a dialogue between these two disciplines and how each might contribute to the development of the other. One might say that these questions have been the major concern of the Sociology of Law, and that for some time now an agitated debate has existed on what is-or what should be- the object of study of that field, as well as what the appropriate methods are for approaching it. Originally, this sub-discipline (or field of research) was conceived as a bridge between the two, a point of intersection between two different views of law. Over time, however, as it won its own autonomous space, the Sociology of Law became in itself the frontier between both disciplines. What, then, does "crossing frontiers" mean within this context? For me, as a sociologist interested in the study of labor regulation and social inequality, crossing borders means exploring the relationship between Sociology and the Sociology of Law, in order to understand how the latter might contribute to the analysis of social processes that are largely crosscut by legal regulations.Through an analysis of a particular case -that of social protection for immigrant domestic workers in Argentina- the object of this paper is to reflect on how the Sociology of Law has contributed to the study of various forms of inequality. The work is divided into three sections. The first consists of a synthesis of the debate over the Sociology of Law, with the aim of underscoring the tensions that arise between readings on the subject, depending on whether they are grounded in a legal or a sociological perspective. In the second, we present regulatory changes relevant to migration and to domestic labor that have taken place in Argentina over the past decade. In the third, we analyze the implementation of recognized social rights of domestic workers in two new laws (25.871 of 2003 and 26.844 of 2013). The work concludes with a reflection on the way in which Sociology and the Sociology of Law can complement each other and contribute to the study of the production and reproduction of social inequalities. This text should be treated as though it were a Russian doll, since it contains two levels of analysis. The first is the methodological level, at which the case under study serves as a reflection on the potentialities and limits of the Sociology of Law as it relates to the study of broader social processes. The second level consists of the case itself, which shows the paradoxical effect of some regulations. With respect to the social rights of migrant domestic workers, what is observed is the way in which the state (in its role as a lawmaker), with the intention of reducing inequalities with regards to the law, contributes to the production of other forms of inequality.

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