Latin American Constitutionalism,1810-2010 The Engine Room of the Constitution

Author: Roberto Gargarella
Publisher: Oxford University Press USA
ISBN: 9780199937967
Published In: August 2013
Format: Hardback , 320 pages
Jurisdiction: U.S. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only

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Takes a synthetic and broad view of past two centuries of Latin American constitutionalism
Landmark comparative constitutional history
Takes a multidisciplinary perspective

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.

Readership: Students and scholars interested in Latin American studies, constitutional theory, legal history, comparative politics, or political philosophy; required reading for Comparative Law, Comparative Politics, or Democratization at graduate or undergraduate levels

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

Roberto Gargarella, Professor of Constitutional Theory and Political Philosophy, Universidad de Buenos Aires

Roberto Gargarella is Professor of Constitutional Theory and Political Philosophy at Universidad de Buenos Aires and a researcher for CONICET in Buenos Aires and the Christian Michelsen Institute in Norway. He received a John Simon Guggenheim grant in 2000 and a Harry Frank Guggenheim grant in 2002-3 and has published on issues of legal and political philosophy, as well as on U.S. and Latin American constitutionalism.