For a pedagogy of uncertainty

Abstract

This essay explores the relations among dogmatic thinking, the teaching of law and democracy. It presupposes that law is essentially indeterminate, which means that the dogmatic thinking deals with contingent problems that receive mutable solutions along the time. The teaching of law must deal with these dogmatic problems and the solutions existent in the doctrine and jurisprudence, without present them as definitive and indisputable, besides dealing pedagogically with the students’ discomfort with law indeterminacy. In order to work it out, one must reflect upon the way of structuring and conducting classes. Thus, the power that the law applicant exercises becomes evident, making possible the discussion of mechanisms to control it democratically