20 & 21 May 2026, MPIL Heidelberg

This Institute hosted a seminar on May 20 and 21 dedicated to one of the most complex and critical challenges facing Latin America: the democratic reconstruction of Venezuela through the lense of the Ius Constitutionale Commune en América Latina (ICCAL).

Moving beyond traditional approaches to democratic transition, the meeting proposed a multidimensional analysis of the Venezuelan case, recognizing that the current crisis involves not only institutional weakening and the erosion of the rule of law, but also profound geopolitical, economic, and multilateral transformations that are redefining Latin America’s place in the contemporary international order.

ICCAL facilitated the discussion within the central conceptual framework to articulate the re-Inter-Americanization of Venezuela, aimed at the protection of human rights, democratic resilience, and institutional reconstruction. The seminar specifically sought to connect international law, the Inter-American System, comparative constitutional law, and global transitional experiences with concrete questions regarding the viability of a sustainable transition in Venezuela.

The discussion brought together in person prominent international academics and experts such as Armin von Bogdandy, Rodrigo Uprimny, Mariola Urrea, Sabine Michalowski, José Martín y Pérez de Nanclares, Mariela Morales Antoniazzi, Jesus María Casal, Thairi Moya, Sabine Kurtenbach, Henry Jiménez, Zulima Sánchez, Leon Seidl, Franca Feisel, Gretel Mejía Bonifazi, Constanza Núñez, Ugo Cedrangolo, Carolina Bejarano Martínez, Joaquín Garzón, Edward Pérez, Jesús María Casal, and Ariel Sánchez Meertens, who reflected on the dimensions of the transition and the challenges in the current regional and global context. Throughout the sessions, comparative lessons from transition processes in countries such as Spain, Chile, Guatemala, Colombia, and Syria were discussed. In a hybrid session on the perspective of supranational actors and civil society on Venezuela, the seminar was joined online by Rodrigo Mudrovitsch, María Claudia Pulido, Sofía Macher Batanero, Katya Salazar, Beatriz Borges, Laura Dib, Viviana Krsticevic and Eduardo Trujillo.

The seminar also highlighted the need to build a regional and transnational community of practice capable of generating realistic and sustainable proposals. In line with the spirit of ICCAL, the objective was not to offer immediate solutions, but to strengthen spaces for cooperation, institutional learning, and long-term strategic dialogue.

This initiative reaffirms the importance of spaces for comparative legal reflection and critical discussion on major democratic challenges, connecting Latin America, Europe, and the international system around the defense of democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.