This symposium marks the first time AJIL Unbound publishes in a foreign language, in an effort to open the conversation to a broader community. The collection of six essays, accessible in both English and Spanish, is a first but relevant milestone toward a more inclusive academic debate.

The symposium draws inspiration from the writings of Chilean jurist Alejandro Alvarez – later an ICJ judge – who first proposed in 1909 an argument for the existence of a Latin American international law (here). In order to reopen Alvarez’s inquiry and critically reflect on the changing regional dynamics, AJIL Unbound brought together a diverse group of Latin American scholars to explore the current era of decentered regional legal projects.

In their introduction to this project, Alejandro Chehtman, Alexandra Huneeus, and Sergio Puig highlight some of the symposium’s contributions. The essays bring light to a new configuration of non-state actors and social movements that play an important role in reshaping international law and institutions, drifting away from the more traditional top-down enterprise of international law-making (here).

Four essays focus on the ways in which a more diverse group of actors and interests at both the national and subnational levels leverage international law. Laura Betancur-Restrepo (Universidad de los Andes) and Helena Alviar-García (Sciences-Po Law School) examine how actors in Colombia have engaged with international law as they broker and implement the country’s 2016 Peace Agreement (here). Jorge Contesse (Rutgers Law School) examines the idea of a Latin American transnational law, by looking at the practice of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. His essay discusses the notion of a constitutional common law in Latin America through the dialogue between the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, domestic high courts, and litigants (here). Ana Micaela Alterio (Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México) turns to gender in the inter-American human rights system, focusing on the groundbreaking Vicky Hernández et al. v. Honduras judgment, which recognized “gender” and “sex” as distinct protected categories, and applied regional protections for women to a trans woman. (here). Alterio defends the decision as a key contribution to debates on feminism, and, more generally, to a larger re-imagination of the binary character of law. John Antón Sánchez (Universidad Intercultural Amawtay) explores the push by Afro-descendant peoples of the Americas to claim a distinct status from Indigenous peoples in international law. He argues that despite a “welcome evolution” in the recognition practice of regional bodies, “some important questions remain unclear.” (here)

Next, Marcela Prieto Rudolphy (University of Southern California Gould School of Law) focuses on populism in Latin America and its vexed relationship with multilateral projects. She argues that, as populist leaders in Latin America are largely cosmopolitans, new conceptual tools to appraise how they use and reshape international law are needed. (here) Finally, Beatriz Garcia (Western Sydney University) and Laurent Pauwels (University of Sydney) discuss how regional organizations—like the Organization of American States—are well posed to play an important role on the environmental front, setting standards to build deforestation-free supply chains. (here). While the symposium does not aim to provide a full account of all emerging regional projects, the essays “point to an emerging sensibility in the project of Latin American international law—one that is decentered, more eclectic, and far more inclusive.”

Read the full symposium in both English and Spanish here.

Ingrid (Wuerth) Brunk is the Helen Strong Curry Chair in International Law and Director, Cecil D. Branstetter Litigation & Dispute Resolution Program, at Vanderbilt Law School, USA, and the co-Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of International Law (with Monica Hakimi).