Latin American Constitutionalism,1810-2010

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.

• 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

An original book and one of the first serious intellectual attempts to identify common features shared by the constitutional experience of all countries in the continent. Roberto Gargarella is affirming the existence of a "Latin American constitutionalism" and his book can be the cornerstone of a new field of study in constitutional law and constitutional theory.