Full Description
Latin America possesses an enormously rich constitutional history, but this legal history has only recently begun to be subjected to scholarly inquiry. As Roberto Gargarella contends, contemporary constitutional and political theory has a great deal to learn from this history, as Latin American constitutionalism has endured unique challenges that have not appeared in other regions. Such challenges include the emergence of egalitarian constitutions in inegalitarian contexts; deliberation over the value of "importing" foreign legal instruments; a long-standing exercise of socio-economic rights (which is only just starting in other areas of the world); issues of multiculturalism and indigenous rights; substantial experience with "unbalanced" versions of the system of "checks and balances" (due to the presence of so-called hyper-presidentialist regimes); and the succession of numerous and frequent
constitutional changes. In this landmark book, Gargarella provides a broadly comparative history of Latin American constitutionalism, informed by constitutional theory. He organizes the book across four major historical periods of Latin American legal history, infusing this history with a discussion of the ideas of thinkers including Juan Bautista Alberdi, Francisco Bilbao, Simón Bolívar; Juan Egaña, José González Vigil, Victorino Lastarria, Juan Carlos Mariátegui, Juan Montalvo, José María Mora, Mariano Otero, Manuel Murillo Toro, José María Samper and Domingo Sarmiento.
Contents
Preface ; Chapter 1: The first Latin American Constitutions (1810-1850) ; Chapter 2: "Fusion constitutionalism": the liberal-conservative compact at the second half of the 19 ; Chapter 3: The material basis of the Constitution ; Chapter 4: The limits imposed by the past upon the new Constitutions ; Chapter 5: The crisis of the post-colonial constitutional model. Positivism and revolution, at the beginning of the new Century ; Chapter 6: Constitutionalism at the mid-20 ; Chapter 7: Grafting social Rights onto hostile Constitutions ; Chapter 8: Contemporary constitutionalism I. Constitutions in internal tension ; Chapter 9: Contemporary constitutionalism II. The "engine room" of the Constitution ; Chapter 10: What have we learned in 200 years of constitutionalism? For an egalitarian constitutionalism ; Notes ; Bibliography ; Index
