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Ius Constitutionale Commune en América Latina: Observations on Transformative Constitutionalism

Part of: Constitutionalization of International Law in Latin America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Armin von Bogdandy
Armin von Bogdandy*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Goethe University Frankfurt, Heidelberg Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law
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A new approach

Ius Constitutionale Commune en América Latina (ICCAL) constitutes a new approach to constitutionalism in the region. It has transformative aims and draws its energy from the perception of unacceptable conditions of a systematic nature. Like many legal concepts it refers both to positive law as a well as to the legal discourse connected to it. In terms of positive law, it is above all based upon the American Convention on Human Rights and other inter-American legal instruments, the concordant guarantees of national constitutions, the constitutional clauses opening up the domestic legal order to international law as well as pertinent national and international case law. In terms of legal discourse it is characterized by a disciplinary combination of national and international legal scholarship, a comparative mindset, and a methodological orientation towards principles.

The proponents of this approach set a stark accent on rights and the transformation of political and social realities but reject plebiscitary presidentialism and the centralization of power as a transformative strategy. Accordingly, the separation of powers and independent institutions are accorded great weight. ICCAL supports the regionally secured realization of the central promises of national constitutions, the embedding of the national legal orders in a larger context, and the transformation of society through law.

Type
Symposium on the Constitutionalization of International Law in Latin America
Information
AJIL Unbound , Volume 109 , 2015 , pp. 109 - 114
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 2015

References

1 Striking down amnesty laws for example, Corte Suprema de la Nación [CSJN] [National Supreme Court of Justice], 14/6/2005, “Simón Julio Héctor y otros,“ Fallos de la Corte Suprema de Justicia de la Nación [Fallos] (2005-328-2056) (Arg.); Sabalsagaray Curuchet, Blanca Stela, Denuncia, Excepción de inconstitucionalidad arts. 1, 3 y 4 de la Ley no. 15.848, 19 octubre 2009, M.R.: Jorge O. Chediak González, FICHA 97-397/2004, Sentencia No. 365 (Uru.).

2 The concept of transformative constitutionalism finds its roots in the Global South, where legal institutions and scholars have developed innovative theories, doctrines and practices of modern constitutionalism, better suited to their particular history and reality. In the region, Colombia is perhaps best known for its transformative constitutionalism. See Manuel J. Cepeda, Introducción A la Constitución de 1991: Hacia UN Nuevo Constitucionalismo, 173-186 (1993). For the concept Ius Constitutionale Commune, see García, Cabrera and Montiel Flores v. Mexico, Preliminary Objection, Merits, Reparation, and Costs, Concurring Opinion of Judge Eduardo Ferrer Mac-Gregor Poisot, Inter-Am. Ct. H. R. (ser. C) No. 220 (Nor. 26, 2010)Google Scholar.

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4 Arango, Rodolfo, Fundamentos del Ius Constitutionale Commune en América Latina, in Ius Constitutionale Commune en América Latina. Rasgos, Potencialidades Y Desafíos 25 (von Bogdandy, Armin et al. eds., 2014)Google Scholar. See also Klare, Karl E., Legal Culture and Transformative Constitutionalism 14 S. Afr. J. Hum. Rts. 150 (1998)Google Scholar.

5 Piovesan, Flávia, Ius Constitutionale Commune impacto del Sistema interamericano, in Ius Constitutionale Commune en América la Tina. Rasgos, Potencialidades Y Desafíos 61, 63 (von Bogdandy, Armin et al. eds., 2014)Google Scholar.

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10 See World Bank, Worldwide Governance Indicators, key word: rule of law; Reference Year: 2012; see also The World Justice Project, Rule of Law Index 2014.

11 Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP).

12 Fix-Zamudio, Héctor, El derecho internacional de los derechos humanos en las Constituciones latinoamericanas y en la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, 1 Revista Latinoamericana de Derecho 141, 147-151 (2004)Google Scholar.

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14 See Mariela Morales Antoniazzi, Ph.D. Dissertation (on file with author).

15 For a detailed analysis see Vera, Óscar Parra, El impacto de las decisiones interamericanas. Notas sobre la producción académica y una propuesta de investigación en torno al “empoderamiento institucional”, Ius Constitutionale Commune en América Latina. Rasgos, Potencialidades y Desafíos 383, 383-384 (von Bogdandy, Armin et al. eds., 2014)Google Scholar.

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17 Roberto Gargarella, Latin American Constitutionalism 1810-2010. The Engine Room of the Constitution 170-171 (2013).