Bartolomé de las Casas: Between utopia and abstract law: ENTRE LA UTOPÍA Y EL DERECHO ABSTRACTO

What has been called the “second conversion” of Bartolomé de las Casas is a milestone that has served us to present an epistemological break that occurs in the Dominican’s thought. It is the transition from a utopian project –which seeks to achieve a model of social abundance based on a community between Spaniards and indigenous people– to another, which pursues the recognition of otherness (through the principles of equality and freedom) using legal thinking based on theological and cultural sources. What links both positions is a break with the social and political reality of the time, not only in Spain but especially in America. The clash between thought, whether utopian or juridical, with the material basis sustaining the political reality of the time will provoke an unavoidable “hiatus” in the practical application of his theory.