Janice K. Gallagher is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University, and during AY 2021-22, she is a Democracy Visiting Faculty Fellow at Harvard University's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. Gallagher specializes in comparative politics with a focus on state-society relations and human rights in Latin America. Her research includes extensive fieldwork in Mexico and Colombia, and she has previously worked as a human rights accompanier in Colombia.

• List of FiguresAcknowledgements1. Introduction: Sustained Mobilization Amidst Collusive Impunity2. The Beginnings: The Formation and Disruption of Legal Consciousness3. State and Civil Society Responses to Disappearances in Mexico4. The Evolution of Legal Consciousness: Gaining Voice and Grappling With the Law5. Participatory Investigations: The Legal & Political Opportunities of the Uneven State6. To What Effect? How Sustained Mobilization Affects Collusive Impunity7. ConclusionReferencesIndex

This is a great work in the classic tradition of law and society studies. It tracks the personal and social transformations that start with the experience of violent loss in a context of state incapacity or indifference, and shows how those transformations end up, partially at least, changing the state, constructing a new legality. It offers an intimate, and necessary, look at the struggle against impunity in a country wracked by loss and violence.

Janice K. Gallagher is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University, and during AY 2021-22, she is a Democracy Visiting Faculty Fellow at Harvard University's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. Gallagher specializes in comparative politics with a focus on state-society relations and human rights in Latin America. Her research includes extensive fieldwork in Mexico and Colombia, and she has previously worked as a human rights accompanier in Colombia.

• List of FiguresAcknowledgements1. Introduction: Sustained Mobilization Amidst Collusive Impunity2. The Beginnings: The Formation and Disruption of Legal Consciousness3. State and Civil Society Responses to Disappearances in Mexico4. The Evolution of Legal Consciousness: Gaining Voice and Grappling With the Law5. Participatory Investigations: The Legal & Political Opportunities of the Uneven State6. To What Effect? How Sustained Mobilization Affects Collusive Impunity7. ConclusionReferencesIndex

This is a great work in the classic tradition of law and society studies. It tracks the personal and social transformations that start with the experience of violent loss in a context of state incapacity or indifference, and shows how those transformations end up, partially at least, changing the state, constructing a new legality. It offers an intimate, and necessary, look at the struggle against impunity in a country wracked by loss and violence.

Janice K. Gallagher is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University, and during AY 2021-22, she is a Democracy Visiting Faculty Fellow at Harvard University's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. Gallagher specializes in comparative politics with a focus on state-society relations and human rights in Latin America. Her research includes extensive fieldwork in Mexico and Colombia, and she has previously worked as a human rights accompanier in Colombia.

• List of FiguresAcknowledgements1. Introduction: Sustained Mobilization Amidst Collusive Impunity2. The Beginnings: The Formation and Disruption of Legal Consciousness3. State and Civil Society Responses to Disappearances in Mexico4. The Evolution of Legal Consciousness: Gaining Voice and Grappling With the Law5. Participatory Investigations: The Legal & Political Opportunities of the Uneven State6. To What Effect? How Sustained Mobilization Affects Collusive Impunity7. ConclusionReferencesIndex

This is a great work in the classic tradition of law and society studies. It tracks the personal and social transformations that start with the experience of violent loss in a context of state incapacity or indifference, and shows how those transformations end up, partially at least, changing the state, constructing a new legality. It offers an intimate, and necessary, look at the struggle against impunity in a country wracked by loss and violence.