Over the past 30 years, Latin America has lived through an intense period of constitutional change. Some reforms have been limited in their design and impact, while others have been far-reaching transformations to basic structural features and fundamental rights. Scholars interested in the law and politics of constitutional change in Latin America are turning increasingly to comparative methodologies to expose the nature and scope of these changes, to uncover the motivations of political actors, to theorise how better to execute the procedures of constitutional reform, and to assess whether there should be any limitations on the power of constitutional amendment. In this collection, leading and emerging voices in Latin American constitutionalism explore the complexity of the vast topography of constitutional developments, experiments and perspectives in the region. This volume offers a deep understanding of modern constitutional change in Latin America and evaluates its implications for constitutionalism, democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

Table Of Contents

Foreword: The Life and Death of Constitutions in Latin America: Constitutional Amendments, the Role of Courts and Democracy 

Luís Roberto Barroso



Introduction: Facts and Fictions in Latin American Constitutionalism 

Juliano Zaiden Benvindo, Carlos Bernal and Richard Albert



PART I

POPULAR AND POPULIST CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY

1. Constitution-Making (without Constituent) Power: On the Conceptual Limits of the Power to Replace or Revise the Constitution 

Carlos Bernal

2. Continuity and Change in Latin America: The Ever-Present Authoritarianism and the Democratic Capacities of the New Latin American Constitutions 

Fernando José Gonçalves Acunha

3. Constitutional Moments and Constitutional Th resholds in Brazil: Mass Protests and the 'Performative Meaning' of Constitutionalism 

Juliano Zaiden Benvindo

4. Constitutional Unamendability in Latin America Gone Wrong? 

Yaniv Roznai



PART II

JUDICIAL REVIEW OF CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT

5. The Colombian Constitutional Court's Doctrine on the Substitution of the Constitution 

Juan F González-Bertomeu

6. We the People, They the Media: Judicial Review of Constitutional Amendments and Public Opinion in Colombia 

Vicente F Benítez-R

7. 'Resistance by Interpretation': Supreme Court Justices as Counter-Reformers to Constitutional Changes in Brazil in the 90s 

Diego Werneck Arguelhes and Mariana Mota Prado

8. The Judicial Review of Constitutional Amendments in Brazil and the Super-Countermajoritarian Role of the Brazilian Supreme Court – The Case of the 'ADI 5017' 

Eneida Desiree Salgado and Carolina Alves das Chagas

9. The Role of the Chilean Constitutional Court in Times of Change 

Sergio Verdugo



PART III

CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM AND STABILITY

10. The Paradox of Mexico's Constitutional Hyper-Reformism: Enabling Peaceful Transition While Blocking Democratic Consolidation 

Francisca Pou Giménez and Andrea Pozas-Loyo

11. The Political Sources of Constitutional Amendment (Non)Difficulty in Mexico 

Mariana Velasco Rivera

12. Subnational Constitutionalism and Constitutional Change in Brazil: The Impact of Federalism in Constitutional Stability 

Breno Baía Magalhães

13. Legislative Process and Constitutional Change in Brazil: On the Pathologies of the Procedure for Amending the 1988 Constitution 

Leonardo Augusto de Andrade Barbosa

14. Transformative Constitutionalism and Extreme Inequality: A Problematic Relationship 

Magdalena Correa Henao