McGill Law Journal ~ Revue de droit de McGill
MCGILL LAW JOURNAL ANNUAL LECTURE 2011 ~
CONFRENCE ANNUELLE DE LA REVUE DE
DROIT DE MCGILL 2011
Carlos Fuentes*
EDITORS NOTE
Much as with the work of Sergei Eisenstein
the famous Soviet filmmaker alluded to below by
Carlos Fuentesthis lecture provides us with a
montage of Fuentes life experiences, with a particular
focus on how they may find resonance in the area of
transsystemic law, and the non-traditional legal
pathways that these studies may lead to. At a young
age Fuentes was exposed to both the formal study of
law as well as the less formal realms provided by his
own undertakings and explorations into literature.
The interplay between these two apparent opposites
produced a concrete understanding of society, the law,
and the world it is applied to.
It is important for students and practitioners of
law to understand the global importance and applica-
bility of our field. To that end, it is edifying to hear
from a multidisciplinary scholar who has transcended
his legal education, while still carrying with him his
early formation in law. This lecture can be read as a
serious look at the life of a literary genius, or as a
postmodern pastiche that seeks to lay a series of ques-
tions in front of the reader alongside the responsibility
of piecing the answers to such questions together for
oneself. In the recent tradition of bringing unorthodox
speakers to the McGill Law Journals Annual Lecture
with something unique to say about the state and cul-
ture of law, rather than purely the theory of it, we are
pleased to present our transcription of this thoughtful
address from Mr. Carlos Fuentes.
MOT DE LA RDACTRICE
limage de luvre de Sergei Eisenstein le
ralisateur de films sovitique dont Carlos Fuentes
fait mention ci-dessous cette confrence nous offre
un montage des expriences de vie de Fuentes. Il sagit
dun amalgame entre ses expriences,
ltude
transsystmique du droit et
les parcours non
traditionnels auxquels des tudes en droit peuvent
mener. Ds un jeune ge, Fuentes fut expos aux
aspects formels et informels de ltude du droit grce
ses propres initiatives et explorations littraires.
Linteraction entre ces deux notions,
lesquelles
peuvent, premire vue, paratre opposes, a rsult
en une comprhension concrte de la socit, du droit
et du monde que celui-ci rgit.
Il est important pour les tudiants et pour les
praticiens du droit de comprendre limportance et la
pertinence de notre domaine. Il est donc utile de
tendre
intellectuel
multidisciplinaire qui est all au-del de sa formation
juridique sans pour autant
la dlaisser. Cette
confrence peut tre interprte soit comme un regard
srieux que lon pose sur la vie dun gnie littraire,
soit comme un pastiche postmoderne qui prsente au
lecteur une srie de questions auxquelles il doit
rpondre par lui-mme. La tradition veut que le
Confrencier annuel de la Revue de droit de McGill ait
un point de vue unique non seulement sur la thorie
du droit, mais aussi sur ltat et la culture de celui-ci.
Cest donc avec plaisir que nous vous prsentons la
transcription de la confrence de M. Carlos Fuentes.
loreille aux propos dun
* Professor-at-Large in Hispanic Studies, Brown University. Carlos Fuentes is the au-
thor of over two dozen novels and, in addition to his post at Brown, has served as a
professor at Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Paris, Co-
lumbia, Cambridge (as Simn Bolvar Professor for the Centre of Latin American Stud-
ies), and Harvard (where he was appointed the first Robert F Kennedy Visiting Profes-
sor of Latin American Studies). From 1975-1977 he was Mexicos ambassador to
France, and in 1987 he received the Miguel de Cervantes Prize for lifetime achieve-
ment in Spanish literature. This speech was delivered as the McGill Law Journal An-
nual Lecture at the Faculty of Law, McGill University on 30 March 2011.
Citation: (2011) 56:4 McGill LJ 1189 ~ Rfrence : (2011) 56 : 4 RD McGill 1189
Carlos Fuentes 2011
Jai dit mon pre, Je veux devenir crivain .
Il ma dit, Tu vas mourir de faim .
Jinsiste, je crverais, mais tout en tant, crivain .
Il ma dit, Tu es fou ! Va voir le plus grand crivain mexicain .
1190 (2011) 56:4 MCGILL LAW JOURNAL ~ REVUE DE DROIT DE MCGILL
Je remercie Sara Ross, tout dabord. Seoras y seores, ladies and
gentlemen, mesdames et messieurs, bonsoir. Je vais parler en franais, et
aussi en anglais, eh ? Un peu en espagnol aussi.
Ctait Don Alfonso Reyes, qui tait un grand crivain, mais aussi
avocat. Donc, je suis all voir Don Alfonso Reyes, qui tait considr par
Jorge Luis Borges, comme le plus grand prosateur de la langue espagnole,
et je lui ai dit non, non, non, je veux tre crivain pas avocat.
Il ma dit, coute, nous sommes tous des petites tasses de caf. Si tu
prends la tasse comme a, tu vas te brler les doigts. Il faut la prendre par
la anse. Alors la anse au Mexique, cest Seor Licenciado, Monsieur
lavocat. Si tu nas pas a, tu es foutu .
Il a cit Goethe, quand il [a] dit a […] et […] jtais oblig dtudier le
droit contre les dsirs de mon cur. Alors, jtais inscrit la Facult de
droit, au centre de la ville de Mexico, San Ildefonso1. Je prenais mon
temps, jhabitais prs de lAnge de lIndpendance. Et dans la route, je
marrtais la librairie britannique il y avait plus de libraries
spcialises Mexico ce temps-l la librairie britannique, puis je
marrtais la librairie franaise, puis la librairie amricaine, puis la
librairie espagnole, qui tait la seule o on ne pouvait pas toucher les
livres.
Il y avait des gens presque arms l, qui vous empchaient si vous
achetiez le livre, ou bien, sinon, touchez pas. Et jarrivais au centre de
Mexico le Zcalo, la Place de la Constitution. L mme, javais une
sensation trange. Jtais dans le centre de ce qui a t la ville Aztec, la
ville indienne avant la conqute espagnole. Le centre dune ville fonde en
1325, la ville la plus ancienne vivante la plus ancienne du ct nord
amricain. L o je voyais la cathdrale catholique, il y avait eu le grand
Teocalli2 de la religion Aztec ; l o il y avait le palais du prsident, il y
avait le palais de Montezuma, lempereur avec ses nains, ses albinos ; et
l o il y avait la mairie de Mexico, il y a eu le Tzompantli3 avec la tte de
mort. Donc, javais cette sensation dtre la fois, dans le prsent et dans
1 The full name of the institution is Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso. It is located in
Mexico City.
2 A terraced pyramid built as the base for a temple located at its apex.
3 An alter upon which the skulls of human sacrifices were placed.
ANNUAL LECTURE 2011 ~ CONFRENCE ANNUELLE 2011 1191
le pass de ma ville, de mon pays. Mais il y a un certain soulagement de
se savoir hritier dune culture qui avait une vie intense dans le prsent.
Donc, charg de mes lectures, mais aussi de la croyance que la
littrature ntait que divine inspiration, je navais pas besoin du droit, et
il fallait steindre, sasseoir la table, et attendre larrive de lange de la
littrature. Ma premire leon a t le droit romain, le droit crit. Javais
pass mon enfance Washington, donc on trouvait du monde du droit, du
droit anglo-amricain, du droit non crit, du common law. Mais au
Mexique, jtais bien au centre de la tradition romaine et du code
Napolon, du droit crit. Jtais donc livr linspiration et […] avec une
certaine foi, une croyance la vertu crative du dsordre. Et
soudainement, je me trouvais lintrieur du droit romain, qui est lordre
mme. Le texte que nous avions la Facult de droit Mexico tait le
trait dEugne Petit, Le trait [lmentaire] de droit romain dEugne
Petit4.
Mais jai trouv vite les textes les plus intressants, qui taient Les
institutions de droit romain de Don Rudolph Sohm5 et LEsprit du droit
romain, surtout, de Don Rudolf [von] Jhering6. Jhering ma donn lide de
luniversalit du droit romain, et le droit comme unit de ltat de Rome,
le droit comme unit de lglise la chute de lempire romain et le droit
comme unit des tats nations de la Renaissance. Jhering ma fait
comprendre encore quun deux nauraient exist sans le droit romain.
Rome mme, naurait pas exist sans le droit. Rome comme fait central de
la civilisation pagane qui a suivi, et le droit romain dans la naissance du
monde chrtien au Renaissance, le droit romain comme lment de la
civilisation moderne. Ctait ma premire leon dans la Facult de droit et
trs important pour moi, et par l […] jai dcouvert llment dordre, et la
raison ncessaire une criture que jusque l, jusque l, je croyais libre
toute en tant assujetti, bien-sr, mon caprice.
Du droit romain jai pass au cours sur la philosophie de ltat. Le
cours tait donn par un matre que je noublierais un matre
merveilleux ctait Manuel Pedroso7. Manuel Pedroso tait un marquis
de Sville qui sest tourn vers la Rpublique espagnole, a t
4 Le trait elmentaire de droit romain, contenant le dveloppement historique et lexpos
gnral des principes de la lgislation romaine, depuis lorigine de Rome jusqua
lempereur Justinien (Paris: Arthur Rousseau, 1903).
5 This refers to a general French translation. For the original book, see Rudolph Sohm,
Institutionen Des Rmischen Rechts (Leipzig: Verlag von Duncker & Heublot, 1884).
6 Lesprit du droit romain dans les diverses phases de son dveloppement, translated by
Octave De Meulenaere (Paris: Maresq, 1878).
7 Manuel Martnez Pedroso was the Spanish commercial attach to Moscow in the years
leading up to the Second World War and a dean of the University of Seville.
1192 (2011) 56:4 MCGILL LAW JOURNAL ~ REVUE DE DROIT DE MCGILL
ambassadeur de la Rpublique Moscou et Caracas, et a traduit Le
capital de Marx, en plus. Alors, ce moment-l, la Facult de droit de
lUniversit de Mexico, avait une tradition bibliophage. On nous donnait
des listes normes de livres quon ne lisait jamais. Cent livres pour un
cours on ne lisait pas. Pedroso tait plus intelligent, et nous donnait
trois livres pour comprendre la philosophie de ltat.
Ces trois livres taient tout fait La Rpublique de Platon8, pour
comprendre ltat organique, comme articulation de ses parties. Mais,
nous avertit Pedroso : […] si ltat signifie la loi et les caprices des
souverains, cest lennui […] tandis que si ltat signifie que la loi simpose
au seigneur, cest le bonheur. Pour notre matre Pedroso le pouvoir de
lesprit le pouvoir de lesprit dsignait lesprit du pouvoir. Donc, cest la
justice qui devait dominer, aussi bien chaque classe et chaque individu.
Le deuxime livre, que nous proposait le Professeur, ctait Le Prince
de Machiavel9. Chez Machiavel, il nous enseignait [que] la ncessit nest
pas une limitation des capacits humaines, mais la stimulation laction
politique vertueuse. Le choix […] limite la ncessit totale comme rgle du
monde, mme si la vertu est constamment viole […] par lambition et par
les mots de lesprit. La vertu enfin est une qualit de la femme de
Machiavel. Et bon, permettez moi de lire ce que Machiavel dit sur lui-
mme dans mon plus rcent roman, La voluntad y la fortuna. Cest Ma-
chiavel qui parle ici :
Machiavelli the misogynist! Didnt I marry Marietta Corsini to
obtain, in a single hymen, both virginity and fortune? Ah, dont re-
peat the tired phrases that pursue me from century to century. Be
bolder. Have the audacity, my young friends, to penetrate my true bi-
ography, not the one that historians […] serious historians […] my
true biography, about the real, vulgar, crude, lustful existence of Nic-
col Machiavelli […] Let me say it aloud so everyone can hear: I,
Machiavelli, dont know anything that gives me more happiness, do-
ing it, thinking about it, than fornication. A man can philosophize all
he wants, but this is the truth . Thats what I wrote, and now I re-
peat it to you. Everybody understands it. Few say it. You can quote
me. It irritates me that people are ignorant of my taste for women
and sex. Let them be ignorant! What difference does it make! But if
youre going to write truthfully about me, youll repeat with me:
Sweet, trifling, or weighty, sex creates a network of feelings without
which, it seems to me, I could not be happy.
Look at them: One is named Gianna, another Lucrecia, still an-
other La Tafani. Ill tell you something beyond their names: Desire
8 Ltat ou la Rpublique de Platon, translated by Jean Nicolas Grou (Paris: Chez
Lefvre, 1840).
9 Translated by Amelot de La Houssayne (Amsterdam: Union Gnrale dditions, 1684).
ANNUAL LECTURE 2011 ~ CONFRENCE ANNUELLE 2011 1193
responds only to nature, not to morality. La Riccia was a prostitute
well known all around Florence? That does not diminish in the least
the pleasure she gave me. She was my lover for ten years. It didnt
matter to her when my fortunes changed. She didnt change. Friends
changed. She did not. And La Tafani […] La Tafani […] Charming,
refined, noble, I can never praise her as she deserves. Love entangled
me in her web. They were nets woven by Venus, my young friends,
soft and sensitive … Until the day when the nets harden and im-
prison you, and you cant undo the knots and dont care about the
punishment. Dont forget, all love is pardoned and pardonable if it
gives you pleasure. I had relations with women and with men. It was
another time. Homosexuality was common in Florence.
In general, all my love had sweetness, because loved flesh gave me
delight and because when I loved I forgot my troubles, so much so
that I preferred the prison of love to having freedom, yes the freedom,
ha! the small freedoms granted to me10.
Le troisime auteur dans le cours de matre Pedroso, tait Rousseau.
[Du] contrat social11, quil jugeait trs important pour comprendre la
volont gnrale, assume le fait de ltat et la libert comme participation.
Je comprenais bien les leons du Professeur Pedroso, mais finalement, il
me fallait les associer la lecture et lcriture. Donc, cest grce au droit
que jai relu srieusement lAntigone12, un livre qui tait fondamental pour
moi. […] Antigone, comme la grande uvre qui me concernait comme une
position entre le droit crit, et le droit non crit, entre ltat et la famille,
entre Creon et Antigone13. Et ensuite, une lecture qui tait aussi trs
10 Carlos Fuentes, Destiny and Desire, translated by Edith Grossman (New York: Random
House, 2011) at 338-39. Note that Fuentess reading of these pages during the lecture is
read differently in parts than the original text by Fuentes as translated by Grossman.
The new idiosyncrasies that Fuentes brought to this reading of his own work have been
left in this transcript of the lecture in order to reflect Fuentess purpose of expressing
the spirit of the text towards the audience in the lecture roomas a part of his lec-
turerather than merely relaying the original text, where Machiavelli is instead
speaking to the character Josu.
11 Jean Jacques Rousseau, Du contrat social (Paris: Chez Mourer et Pinpar, 1797).
12 Sophocles, Antigone, translated by Ian Johnston (Arlington, Va: Richer Resources,
2007).
13 During the question and answer period, an audience member asked Fuentes about the
relationship between the understanding of the law as it is reflected in Antigone and the
law in contemporary Mexico in terms of the problematic dynamic between the written
law of the government and the law created in the streets of Mexico by drug traffickers.
Fuentes responded:
Je crois que a se porte universellement, eh? Dans nimporte quelle
socit vous aurez les obligations et les devoirs, les droits qui posent la loi et
celles de lindividu de la famille. Une bonne socit, celle qui arrive [] faire
une espce de conciliation entre les exigences de la personne, de la famille et
les exigences de la politique de la socit. Quand cette relation nexiste pas,
bon, vous avez le rgime dHitler ou de Stalin. Dans la mesure, la dmocratie
1194 (2011) 56:4 MCGILL LAW JOURNAL ~ REVUE DE DROIT DE MCGILL
importante pour moi tandis que jtudiais le droit, ctait luvre de
Kleist, Le prince de Hombourg14. Le prince de Hombourg, qui me parlait
aussi de la divergence entre le succs personnel et la loi de ltat. Ctait,
voyez-vous, la manire que ma vocation dcrivain sest lie lhistoire,
la civitas. Je ne sais pas comment vous le prononcer ici : civitas, ou
quivitas, ou quiwitas de plusieurs faons.
Dans un pays, le Mexique, qui sortait peine de sa propre rvolution
politique, sociale et culturelle, et se voulait une rvolution dans la loi et
avec la loi mais, que, dans la pratique a trouv dautre chemins
rvolutionnaires, tout dabord dans le roman. Azuela, Guzmn, Muoz.
Azuela qui, dj en 1915 dans Los de abajo15, […] dcrivait les
contradictions, les faillites rvolutionnaires de la peinture murale de
Rivera et Orozco, qui dj aux annes vingt peignaient les dissolutions,
les caricatures, les chagrins et les pitis des rvolutionnaires. La musique
nouvelle de Chavez, Revueltas, Blas Galindo, qui rcupra le son perdu de
loreille mexicaine.
Du cinma […] aussi influenait [le] Mexique par Eisenstein qui tait
l pour filmer Que viva Mxico!16, et la photo de Figueroa, le premier film
de Fernando de Fuentes, Vmanos con Pancho Villa!17 et El compadre
Mendoza18. [Et] […] loeuvre de Luis Buuel, qui a fait parti, Luis Buuel,
offre pas dune faon parfait mais dans la mesure o a cest possible,
cest la meilleure du monde que nous avons. Mais il faut perfectionner ce
monde. Ce nest pas jamais un monde tout fait idal, ou parfait. Ce que
vous venez de proposer, cest le but, le but dune socit : darriver concilier.
Mais ds quon croit quon a concili les deux facteurs, des nouveaux
problmes se posent et il faut repenser et aller plus en avant. Cest dire que
lhistoire est comme la personne humaine. On vit, et on fait nos travails, et
nous mourrons. Et ensuite, il y a des enfants, et des petits enfants. Cest la
socit cest comme a aussi. Ce quon a fait, il faut que les autres qui
arrivent plus tard le fassent mieux que nous et vont [le] faire en avant. Cest
dire, on a jamais une ide, on arrive jamais une socit parfaite. Quand
on croit quon a une socit parfaite, a sappelle le totalitarisme. Dans une
dmocratie, ce nest pas possible.
14 Heinrich von Kleist, Le prince de Hombourg, translated by Daniel Mesguich (Paris:
Bord de leau, 2005).
15 Mariano Azuela, Los de abajo: novela de la revolucin mexicana (Tlalpan, MX: Fondo de
Cultura Econmica, 1973).
16 Sergei M Eisenstein & Grigori Aleksandrov, Que viva Mxico! (film), directed by Sergei
M Eisenstein (Mexico: Sergei M Eisenstein, 1931).
17 Fernando de Fuentes, Rafael F Muoz & Xavier Villaurrutia, Vmanos con Pancho Vi-
lla! (film), directed by Fernando de Fuentes (Mexico: Alberto J Pani, 1936).
18 Juna Bustillo Oro, Fernando de Fuentes & Mauricio Magdaleno. El compadre Mendoza
(film), directed by Fernando de Fuentes & Juna Bustillo Oro (Mexico: Jos Castellot
Hijo, Rafael ngel Fras & Antonio Prida Santacilia, 1934).
ANNUAL LECTURE 2011 ~ CONFRENCE ANNUELLE 2011 1195
de limmigration de lEspagne rpublicaine qui a tant contribu nos
oreilles la tentation chauvin […] en Mexico […] et du folklorisme, un
couleur. Limmigration rpublicaine espagnole nous a aid transformer
ma aid transformer les tudes de droit.
Je viens de parler de Pedroso et de philosophie. LUniversit de
Mexico accueillait des grands philosophes espagnols de la migration tel
[que] Jos Gaos, qui tait le traducteur espagnol du Sein und Zeit de
Martin Heidegger19, et dEduardo Nicol20 qui tait spcialiste dans loeuvre
Nicholai Hartmann21. Musiciens, metteurs en scne, acteurs, architectes,
cest le Mexique enfin qui a gagn la guerre dEspagne, dans ce sens-l.
The Spanish Civil War … As a child, I lived in the Mexican Embassy
in Washington, DC next door to the embassy of the Spanish Republic and
its ambassador, who was a great republican statesman, Fernando Los
Rioswho was torn between the Spanish Republics … autonomy, and the
need for support from the European democracieswhich did not arrive
while Hitler and Mussolini supplied Franco with arms and airplanes.
As it is depicted forever in Picassos great painting Guernica, I evoke
the Spanish Civil War, as a way of passing from my Mexican education to
my European year at the cole dhautes tudes international in Geneva.22
I was twenty years old. This was a beautiful lakeside mansion. The school
was headed by William Rappard23a youthful looking, serene, white-
haired man who sought through the school to continue Genevas interna-
tionalist tradition, its spirit beyond the League of Nations, and in con-
tinuance with the newborn United Nations organization. The law of the
United Nations had several specialized agencies in Geneva, starting with
the ILOthe International Labour Organizationwhich brought to-
gether representatives of labour, governments, and the private sector. …
In turn[this] combinationit gave the International Labour Organiza-
tion (the ILO) its character. Created in 1919 by the Treaty of Versailles,
19 Martin Heidegger, El ser y el tiempo, translated by Jos Gaos (Tlalpan, MX: Fondo de
Cultura Econmica, 1951).
20 Eduardo Nicol was a professor of philosophy at Universidad Nacional Autnoma de
Mxico.
21 Nicolai Hartmann was a professor of philosophy at the University of Marburg, Univer-
sity of Cologne, University of Berlin, and University of Gttingen.
22 The institutions full name is Institut de hautes tudes internationales et du
dveloppement.
23 William Rappard (1883-1958) was the co-founder of the Graduate Institute of Interna-
tional Studies (GIIS) and served as the director of the Mandate Department of the
League of Nations. He is also the namesake of the World Trade Organizations head-
quarters in Geneva.
I couldnt find him. The conference opened. No sign of the labour rep-
Where have you been, I asked?
With a woman, he admitted.
Thats not a serious answer, I said … untruthfully.
1196 (2011) 56:4 MCGILL LAW JOURNAL ~ REVUE DE DROIT DE MCGILL
the ILO was the first specialized agency to become part of the United Na-
tions after World War II.
Mexicos interest was even evident in the ILOs concern with migrant
labour and economic development. Later decolonization brought special
attention to developing nations, and thus again to Mexico. As a junior
(very junior) member of the Mexican delegation to the ILO, I was assigned
to take care of Mexicos labour representative to the annual meeting.
resentative. Finally, on the second day, he showed up.
But he said, Its the first time Ive made love to a woman who speaks
French … , was his definitive answer.
But to come back to the school [on a] professional roster was truly
imminent. I attended the classes of Paul Guggenheim.24 Paul Guggenheim
was immensely concerned with the failure of the League of Nations, and
its tendencies to give universal importance to all issueslarge or small.
Professor Guggenheim believed that international organizations should
clearly distinguish between the universal, the continental, and the re-
gional. But he was fearful that the tension between the equality of states
and the hegemony of lawof big powerscould not be solved … could not
be solved. Although the United Nations tried to through the General As-
sembly, which gave representation to all of [the] member states, and the
Security Council, to a few members.
What I found very important in Professor Guggenheims course, was
that he realized the rudimentary character of international lawhow ru-
dimentary international law truly wasand the consequent recourse to il-
licit measures because, precisely, of that rudimentary character; and the
need to go forward in perfecting international rights and duties.25 I came
24 Professor Paul Guggenheim was a professor of public law from 1931-1969 in Geneva.
25 During the question and answer period, Fuentes expanded on his current views about
internationalism, specifically within Latin America, stating:
I think we should … think in terms of a transatlantic community that
takes in the Iberian Peninsula, and all of Latin America, from Mexico down
to Chile and Argentina, and we do so in many aspects. There are, of course,
political differences. Not all governments are the same but the language is
the same. The culture is the same. The traditions are the same. That gives us
a sense of unity that perhaps should not be bothered by political differences,
which are natural. It would be very imperfect, very dangerous, I think, if all
ANNUAL LECTURE 2011 ~ CONFRENCE ANNUELLE 2011 1197
away from this course, Professor Guggenheims course, with a return visi-
tation of my literary impulse. My conviction that as much as literature
required form, there was in literature an implicit freedom: an implicit
freedom to violate rules, and to give space to matter beyond the pale of
good manners, of social conventions, or rules of languageto violate. To
have the sense of order I had achieved, but also to violate those same
rules in order to write. I had arrived in a way at a useful synthesis of my
own creative imagination, of my own freedom, and the need for rules and
for Roman law.26
I needed yet another lesson, and I received it in the lectures delivered
by Professor Wilhelm Rpke,27 who did not undermine my lifelong faith in
a better social structure, or the lefts inherent location [facing] the prob-
lem that the right doesnt want to face. I always believed this, but, but,
but … Professor Rpkes critique of socialismhe called it a tragedy not a
utopia. … Nevertheless I quote Rpke, I quote him, To work out new
forms of socialism which will stand up to present day capitalism [sic].28
This is a valid suggestion for the left everywhere today.
Latin American countries had the same regimes. This happened a bit under
the military dictatorships of the Cold War when the armies of Latin America,
many armies, thought that to be in the favour of Washington was to have
military dictators that were anti-communist. The Pinochet dictatorship in
Chile, the Videla dictatorship in Argentina, the constant dictatorships of
Central America, Trujillo … were all extremely favourable to the Americans.
They [knelt] before the United States in the name of anti-communismthat
is gone.
Today, we have very different governments. Some are more democratic
than others, but in general, there is a diversity, which reflects the reality of
Latin America, and what permits us to deal in a better way than the past,
not only with the United States, but with Asia and Europe. Many countries
in Latin America have begun very straight relationships, with China, for ex-
ampleBrazil, Columbia, Chileand so we are entering a multicultural di-
versified world. And I think that President Obama understands this and its
a good thing because in the past, sometimes, the American presidents pro-
posed only one way, which is the American way. Now were following the
Latin American way, in friendship, with the United States, which is the best
solution.
26 Fuentess account of his legal education and its place in his description of his vision of
the law was emphasized later on in the question and answer period that followed his
speech, when he stated: I think thats itsince the earliest times, especially Roman
law, which is our great inheritanceit was the sense of giving ideas activity; a presence;
an action in the role of society, the state, and the individual. And that is the best defini-
tion of the law that I know.
27 Professor Wilhem Rpke was professor of economics in Geneva and was heavily con-
cerned with human rights and advocating free trade.
28 Wilhelm Rpke, The Social Crisis of Our Time (New Jersey: Transactions, 1991) at 157.
Originally published in 1942, the official quote reads: All these damning arguments
1198 (2011) 56:4 MCGILL LAW JOURNAL ~ REVUE DE DROIT DE MCGILL
For Rpke wanted to attend [to] the problems of the working class, the
problems of monopolies, exploitation, and the mechanizing effects of capi-
talismmass civilizationbut wanted to find a third way between capi-
talist exploitation and totalitarian collectivism. This idea of a third way,
which I heard for the first time in Rpkes courses in Genevawhich has
been popularized today by the London School of Economics, and its former
director Anthony Giddens.29 A third way to try to place the market econ-
omy within the larger framework of the society and its many strata and
the reality of the state as a principle of governance, and as an emanator of
laws.
I ended my year in Genevaa very formative year as you can seeas
secretary to the Mexican member, Roberto Cordoba, in the International
Law Commission of the United Nations: a body of jurists independent
from the states they belong to, at least in principle. I recall the presence of
eminent internationalists in the Commission such as James Brierly, the
English author of a brilliant compendium called The Law of Nations,30
Nellie Hudson of New York, who had worked for a solution of Mexicos
debt crisis in the 1930s, and Georges Scelle, the prolific French author of
Droit des gens31 et lIntroduction de ltude de la loi.32 The Latin American
members were … Roberto Cordoba, who was also later to pose as Mexicos
representative to the Caracas Conference in 1954 that demanded a social-
ist government; and Gilberto Amado, who was a very picturesque Brazil-
ian diplomat whose enthusiasms were tempered by his secretary Setze
Camara Filio, who was to achieve a high and influential position in Bra-
zils chancellery Itamaraty, which is the model of Latin American foreign
ministries.
The central subject at the International Law Commissions 1950 meet-
ings was no more and no less than the Nuremberg Trials, which just oc-
curred a few years before, and the problems it posed for international law
since the trials were not based on pre-existing legal ordinances, and could
be accused of being created ex post facto. So the Commission discussed
two matters: whether the Nuremberg Trials were based on judicial acts
have, as we said, caused the more farsighted among socialist theorists of our time to re-
orient themselves and to work out new forms of socialism which will stand up to such
present-day criticism of socialism as has become irrefutable.
29 Baron Anthony Giddens is a British sociologist and was director of the London School of
Economics from 1997-2003.
30 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978).
31 Prcis de droit des gens principes et systmatique : droit constitutionnel international ;
les liberts individuelles et collectivites, llaboration du droit des gens positif (Paris:
Recueil Sirey, 1934).
32 Introduction ltude du droit (Paris: Rousseau et Cie, 1951).
ANNUAL LECTURE 2011 ~ CONFRENCE ANNUELLE 2011 1199
considered criminal before World War IIand which were theseand
whether individuals and not only states could be judged under interna-
tional law in these cases. Two important matters.
Part of my obligation at the cole dhautes tudes, was to write a the-
sis, and mine was on the clausula rebus sic stantibus: considering the
pacta sunt servanda [as] the thesis, and rebus sic stantibus, the antithesis.
I will not go into the details of a matter well known to youit implies that
all treaties are concluded with a reserve that the treaty should be modi-
fied if the circumstances that motivated it change. Which means that we
are dealing with valid treaties, andbecause the treaty is validis a rea-
son why the clausula is post.
I questioned in my thesis the interpretation, always tricky, of will
volontand whether the clausula rebus sic stantibus can take effect if we
ignore the conditions under which the parties signed the treaty. That is,
whether we can abstract from these conditions. And also, the question of
who is interpreting the treaty and finallyno, no, not finallyI just had
to ask who has the right to unilateral denunciation of a treaty. And fi-
nally, yes finally, do treaties become invalid, or can they only be overcome
by a contrary actune acte contraire? As Georges Scelle, who was a mem-
ber of this Commission put it, Ce que le corps fait, le corps seul peut
dfaire.
These are someif my memory serves me wellsome of the questions
I dealt with in my thesis. I dont remember too well because writing it; I
felt free from my obligations as a student of the law, and freeand free
to restart my literary career.33 To resume my literary career, which I did,
publishing a book of short stories, Los dias enmascarados; The Masked
Days; Les jours masqus, in 1954. Then my first novel, La regin ms
33 During the question and answer period following the lecture, Fuentes responded to a
question about the methodology behind his writing career as follows:
You cant wait for inspiration, for the angel to come down, and flutter
around you. You have to sit down, and do your work, and do your writing. …
Many writers in Mexico and Latin America fail because theyre waiting,
really, for inspiration to arrive. So the inspiration isnt there; cant write? No,
no, no! Its a question of work, and dont call it work, because finally, it be-
comes a pleasure. … You discover your vocation, then you write it. You write
it through discipline, you do it through discipline, but at the same time, you
do it through joy. Theres a great joy in writing, and then [it] ceases to be
work in the negative sense of the word, and I think this is true of every activ-
ity you undertake. If you are doing what you do not like, you are unhappy. If
you do what you like, you have a measurethe measure that is allowed of
happiness. So I urge everyone in this room tonight, to do what they want to
do. Dont let parents, obligations, the law, politics, anything deter you from
what you want to do, because you will find happiness, if you do what you
want to do.
1200 (2011) 56:4 MCGILL LAW JOURNAL ~ REVUE DE DROIT DE MCGILL
transparente; Where the Air is Clear; La plus limpide rgion, in 1958.
Sensing that the novels of the agrarian Mexico, of the revolution in Mex-
ico, had acquired two masterpieces, Pedro Pramo by Juan Rulfo34 and Al
filo del agua by Agustn Yez;35 and that the vast city of Mexicoa huge
city of Mexicowas the heart of the country, calling me, and saying,
Please … write me! Write me!
Which I did.
Let me add ladies and gentlemen, that all I have said tonight, led me
of course to a rethinking, and constant rethinking, of the relationship be-
tween the law and literature. And of both, as part of the civilizing proc-
esscivilizing process. As a citizen of Mexico, I was as I have already
hinted, haunted, haunted by the divisions, separations in the political
process of changeespecially of revolutionary change. A revolution unites
versus the dictatorshipthe ancien rgimethen la force des choses leads
it to results it had not foreseen: so said Saint-Just.36 The young revolu-
tionary died in his twenties, guillotined in his twenties; Saint-Just called,
called the … adolescent with a funeral halo, said Micheletan adolescent
with a funeral halo.
So the Mexican revolution had united against the thirty year dictator-
ship of Porfirio Diaz in 1910. Under the leadership of Francisco Madero
he became President, and was then assassinated by General Huerta, his
minister of warwhich united all factions against Huerta.37 But as soon
as Huerta was defeated the revolutionaries also broke up into separate
movements. There was the agrarian revolution of the south, personified
by Emiliano Zapata. There was the northern division led by Pancho Villa,
and both fighting the so-called constitutionalists led by Venustiano Car-
ranzawho had Zapata murdered and was then himself (Carranza) mur-
dered by the rising military leader lvaro Obregn, under whose presi-
dency Pancho Villa was killed (retired from fighting, he was murdered be-
fore Obregn himself, seeking re-election, was murdered by a fanatic
Catholic in 1928).38
34 Translated by Margaret Sayers Peden (New York: Grove Press, 1994).
35 (Mexico: Editorial Porrua, 1980).
36 Louis Antoine de Saint-Just, Esprit de la rvolution et de la constitution de France
(Paris: Chez Buevin, 1791) at 59-62, 150-53.
37 See Teresa A Meade, A History of Modern Latin America: 1800 to the Present (Singa-
pore: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010) at 163.
38 See Don M Coerver, Suzanne B Pasztor & Robert Buffington, Mexico: An Encyclopedia
of Contemporary Culture and History (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO/Greenwood, 2004) at
31.
ANNUAL LECTURE 2011 ~ CONFRENCE ANNUELLE 2011 1201
And Obregns successorbig violence, tremendous violence, twenty
years of violencethen under Obregns successor Plutarco Elias Calles, a
revolution was
institutionalized. And under CrdenasLzaro
Crdenas1934-1940, and on re-election: ongoing predominance of the
revolutionary party was assumed, and the last rebels of Saturnino Ce-
dillo, [were] defeated.39 So Mexico had this very long thirty year struggle
to achieve peace and political successionif not political democ-
racywhich would have to wait until the election year 2000 as reason to
that.40 It was a process of civilizing Mexico while tolerating deciviliza-
tiondecivilizing situationscivilization and decivilization.
I take the example of my own country to exemplify the double-process
of civilizing and decivilizing. Evoked famously by Norbert Elias in his
book on the Germans,41 signalling that both civilizing and decivilizing can
occur, as occurred in Germany in the years after World War I simultane-
ouslycivilization and decivilization.42 I always looked at the troubles in
39 See William Dirk Raat & Michael M Brescia, Mexico and the United States: Ambivalent
Vistas, 4th ed (Athens, Ga: University of Georgia Press, 2010) at 148.
40 Fuentes expanded on his view of modern Mexican democracy during the question and
answer period following his speech when he stated that:
If we dont solve the accumulation of problems that are taking place in
Mexico, were going to have an awful time. Were going to have an explosion.
I dont want that. I want peaceful, democratic succession in Mexico that has
to come through order, through realization of who we are, through an advo-
cacy of the candidates … from the left, not only to the mass of the people, but
to the middle class. It is the middle class that decides an election in Mexico.
It is the middle class that goes to the voting booths. You have to offer them
something. They can go the right. They can go to left. But if you have a good
candidate capable of offering them a program for moving forward, for pro-
gress in Mexico, from a civilized center-left, which is what governs many
parts of the world. Its nothing extraordinary … we must have a center-left,
and a center-right, and the extremes to the extremes. Let them go to the ex-
tremes. That is my hope, but sometimes what I hope, doesnt happen.
41 Norbert Elias, The Germans, translated by Rosemary Breger (New York: Polity Press,
1996) at 196.
42 Fuentes discussed Mexicos current major struggle with violence during the question
and answer session following his speech, stating that:
I am part of a commission, which is led by … former Presidents Gaviria
of Columbia, Cardoso of Brazil, and Zedillo of Mexico, which are saying [that]
this is not the way to combat drugs. By simply forbidding drugs, and fighting
the cartels violently, we are not solving the problemswe are not offering al-
ternative solutions to drug consumption. We have to understand that many
people who take drugs are not criminals. They abuse drugs. They should be
in hospitals, not in jails. That there are many ways to accept the use of
drugslittle by little, if you wantbut not to attack the problem frontally as
a criminal act and nothing more. It is more than a criminal act. It involves
society, its wishes, its whims, its possibilities, the necessities of some people.
I mean, you have a terrible problem … in the United States with prohibition,
1202 (2011) 56:4 MCGILL LAW JOURNAL ~ REVUE DE DROIT DE MCGILL
my country occurring simultaneously in Germanythe country of my
great-grandfatherswondering how the nation of Goethe, and Schiller,
and Beethoven could fall into such an abyss. And wondering also [of] the
ability of the German culture of exileThomas Mann … Hanna Arendt,
Hermann Brochto sustain the continuity and renew the culture under
such brutal assault as that Hitler represented. And how, why, the culture
of RussiaAkhmatova, Mandelstam, and Babelhad practically been in
silence under the rule of Stalin, [the] rule of Stalinist dictatorship.43
So I looked at my country Mexico, and realized that the historical
events of the Mexican Revolution, took place in 1910 before the Soviet
and prohibition meant that you had Al Capone, and gangs proliferated in
Chicago, and murders. The moment Roosevelt ended prohibition, everybody
could take a shot of whisky without going to jail, and Al Capone disappeared
from the scene.
If we go little by little, in the sense of decriminalizing the taking of
drugs, we will arrive [at] something comparable as to what Roosevelt did.
But of course, this poses a big problem Franklin Roosevelt did not have. And
now that is that prohibition was purely a US affair, whereas the consump-
tion of drugs is a global problem. So how do you go about it? What agree-
ments do you make? What treaties do you sign? How do you go about it in
each country and a bloc [of] countries? I know its very difficult, but you have
to start somewhere. The present policies have failed. They do not serve any-
one. When you start thinking of new policies and go forwardeven if it is
with small steps.
43 Fuentes expanded upon how he sees the societies of modern predatory governments
evolving, and the opportunities of the people within those societies on the world stage:
We did not know that the modern means of communication were reach-
ing the young, the middle classes of Egypt, of Tunis, of other countries in …
Northern Africa and the near East … The fact that there are societies, which
are forming themselves in order to act democratically … this is going to be a
major factor in [twenty-first] century politics …
Originally the United Nations, as I said before, had representation of all
the world in the Assembly. This does not work, because you cannot have 200
people speaking at the same time with opposing points of view and different
regimes. Then you had the Security Council, which is a minority of nations
that acted specifically on certain issues. We must reform United Nations, yes.
Who will go into the United Nations? Imagine. In the time Im speaking
about, in the time I was a student, the great powers were Russia (the Soviet
Union) and the United States. This is no longer true. The countries that used
to be called third world countries are suddenly the great countries of the
world. They are Brazil. They are China. They are India. You couldnt have
believed this fifty years ago, but suddenly they are the protagonists of the
world order. So what can we say about the future knowing that it is changing
so quickly? That the conditions, which we thought were securewhich were
stayed, stableare no longer there. That we are waiting to see what happens
in the world in order to try to get some order to those events. But right now,
that is all I could say or dare say.
ANNUAL LECTURE 2011 ~ CONFRENCE ANNUELLE 2011 1203
Revolution of 1917, and before the Nazi counter-revolution of 1932. Which
meant that both Soviet communism [and] Nazi totalitarianism had little
effecthad little effecton Mexicos politics (anchored as they were by
events prior to both), and heavily weighted nevertheless Mexicos revolu-
tion by the loss of one million people in the armed struggle of 1910-1921.
One million Mexicans died. Jokers say they died in the cantinas, but I
wonder.
And most importantly, as Ive already cited: in the very early criticism
of the revolutionary (of the political) process, and of the revolutionary
governments by the culturein the culturethat sprang from the revolu-
tion to criticize the revolution, and make sure that it could be a benevo-
lent dictatorship, and not a totalitarian dictatorship. And that, finally,
made it impossible to understand the revolution without these cultural
events.
I say this, finally, in order to bring together the facets of our meeting
here tonight. Law and literature. Politics and language. Reality and
imagination. And I have done it, of course, through my personal experi-
ence, as we face renewed threatsrenewed opportunitiesin our world.
And let me say, finally, that I am thankful for the opportunity that the
McGill Law Journal has offered me tonight. Many thanks, merci, muchas
gracias.
