Latin American New Constitutionalism

Abstract

Abstract The notion of a ‘new Latin American constitutionalism’ (or ‘neo-constitutionalism’) is equivocal. This because it alludes to two radically different constitutional schools of thought that, in the last couple of decades, entered the academic and political scene of the region, transforming part of the constitutional culture and practice of the countries where they have been most influential. The first and most significant school called ‘Latin America’s progressive neo-constitutionalism’, came out of the liberal tradition, as a rejection of the legal formalism and positivism that characterized much of Latin American constitutionalism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The second one, which can be called ‘Latin America’s radical neo-constitutionalism’ combines Marxist and post-Marxist critiques of liberal legalism with the radical-democratic tradition which, since the times of the enlightenment, has associated constitutionalism with the sovereign power of the people.