Historical Approach Institutes of Legal Medicine in the Atlantic during the 20th century – historiography, methodology and documentation

Abstract

This article proposes a critical historical approach to understandingthe institutionalization of Legal Medicine as a global process centred on the so-called Institutes of Legal Medicine evoking the Atlantic system theory and the jeux d’échelles methodology to do so. The proposal aims to explore the technical and social connections between these institutions and seeks to demonstrate the historiographical validity of considering Institutes of Legal Medicine as global objects of macro and micro historical analysis. To that end, the article provides an introduction to Legal Medicine and its Institutes as understood in contemporary historiography, and offers some considerations regarding methodology and documentation to provide conceptual coherence to international and collective research on these Institutes. It is argued that an international and critical perspective is crucial for recognizing these institutions as mechanisms of power and knowledge within the context of professionalization of forensic activities in western urban societies. This approach articulates the institutions of Legal Medicine with interpersonal and structural social dynamics throughout the Atlantic Space, undercovering a common alignment among medical, penal and political systems during the 20th century in countries such as Portugal, France, Italy, Brazil, and Chile.