Is the Cabagra Customary Law Court the revival of tradition? An ethnographic approach to “indigenous justice" in Costa Rica

Abstract

The objective of this article is to analyze a customary law court, which has been in operation since approximately the year 2000 in Cabagra Indigenous Territory located in the southern area of Costa Rica, and to describe its dynamic characteristics that have not been presented in previous studies. The Court of Customary Law of Cabagra (TDCC, for its acronym in Spanish) is a group whose members are the inhabitants of Cabagra and it is oriented mainly towards conflict resolution in the territory. The analysis is based on the author's field work carried out at intervals between 2014 and 2016, with some complementary information from the previous reports and additional field work conducted in 2019.