This project examines how external geopolitical pressures shaped by rivalries among powers such as the United States, China, and Russia affect democratic resilience and the regional protection of human rights in Europe and Latin America. It asks whether there is a geopolitical dimension to transformative constitutionalism (TC) and explores how TC can provide tools to navigate a shifting international order. The research focuses particularly on the influence of geopolitics on national courts, analyzing how historical asymmetries and strategies of mobilization, litigation, and governance can strengthen democratic resilience against external threats that redefine spheres of influence and test the autonomy of high constitutional courts in both regions.
Project Allies
- René Urueña
- Sué González Hauck
- Ignacio G. Perotti
- Daniel R. Quiroga-Villamarín
- Irene Vázquez Serrano
Region / Focus
Europe + Latin America (geopolitics)
Bibliography
- Urueña, R. (2025). Technoscientific Thought and International Law in Latin America. In S. Puig, A. Huneeus, & A. Chehtman (Eds.), Latin American International Law in the Twenty-First Century. Oxford University Press.
- Urueña, R. (2025). “¿Ver todo el mal? Subsidiariedad y el papel epistémico de la adjudicación en el derecho internacional de los derechos humanos en América Latina.” In S. Rubiano Galvis (Ed.), Saberes, tecnologías y derecho en América Latina. Universidad de los Andes.
- Urueña, R., & Yate Cortés, S. (2024). “Constructing the Narrative of Human Rights Impact in Latin America.” In A. von Bogdandy, F. Piovesan, E. Ferrer Mac-Gregor, & M. Morales Antoniazzi (Eds.), The Impact of the Inter-American Human Rights System (pp. 119–214). Oxford University Press.
- Urueña, R., & Prada, M. A. (2022). “Domestic Courts in the Mosaic of States: Transformative Constitutionalism and Fair and Equitable Treatment.” In S. Droubi & C. J. Flores Elizondo (Eds.), Latin America and International Investment Law: A Mosaic of Resistance (pp. 236–252). Manchester University Press.
- Urueña, R. (2021). “Democracy and Human Rights Adjudication in the Inter-American Legal Space.” In P. Zumbansen (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Transnational Law (pp. 867–892). Oxford University Press.
- Urueña, R., & von Bogdandy, A. (2020). “International Transformative Constitutionalism in Latin America.” American Journal of International Law, 114(2), 403.
- Urueña, R. (2019). “Reclaiming the Keys to the Kingdom (of the World): Evangelicals and Human Rights in Latin America.” In J. Nijman & W. G. Werner (Eds.), Netherlands Yearbook of International Law 2018: Populism and International Law (pp. 175–207). T.M.C. Asser Press.
- Urueña, R. (2019). “Domestic Application of International Law in Latin America.” In C. Bradley (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Foreign Relations Law (pp. 565–581). Oxford University Press.
René Urueña
René Urueña is Professor of Law at Universidad de los Andes (Colombia), Max Planck Fellow, and holder of the WTO Chair in Colombia. He has served as lawyer and expert witness before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Special Advisor on Complementarity to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, advisor to the selection committee of Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace, and President of the Colombian Academy of International Law. He has been a researcher at New York University, taught at Harvard Law School’s Institute for Global Law and Policy, and held academic positions at universities in New York, Tel Aviv, Lima, Utah, Vienna, Lapland, and Helsinki. He earned his LL.M. (laudatur) and PhD in Law (eximia cum laude) from the University of Helsinki, and holds a Law degree and postgraduate studies in Economics from Universidad de los Andes.
Sué González Hauck
Sué González Hauck is Assistant Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Chile and a researcher at the Millennium Nucleus on Constitutional Conflicts. She holds a PhD in Law from the University of Chile, with research stays at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg. Her work focuses on comparative constitutional law, democratic resilience, and the protection of fundamental rights in contexts of political and institutional fragmentation. She has published on constitutional change, the role of courts in Latin America, and the interaction between domestic and international human rights law.
Ignacio G. Perotti
Ignacio G. Perotti Pinciroli is Assistant Professor of International Law and Human Rights and Director of the Master’s in Human Rights at Universidad Europea de Madrid. He is also a member of the Max Planck Law Fellow Group Communities of Practice and the Transnational Production of Human Rights Knowledge in Latin America, coordinated by René Urueña. He holds a PhD in Law, Governance and Public Policy from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, two LLMs from the same university, and degrees in Law and Criminal Law from Universidad Nacional de Cuyo (Argentina). His research focuses on international law, human rights, the Inter-American Human Rights System, and transitional justice. Before academia, he worked nearly a decade as a legal officer and court clerk in cases concerning crimes against humanity committed during Argentina’s last dictatorship.
Daniel R. Quiroga-Villamarín
Daniel R. Quiroga-Villamarín is a Hauser/Remarque Global Fellow in International Law and European History at New York University and Managing Editor of the Journal of the History of International Law. He holds a BA in Law from Universidad de los Andes (Colombia), an MA in International Law from the Graduate Institute of Geneva (awarded the Mariano Garcia Rubio Prize for best dissertation), and a PhD in International Law with a minor in International History & Politics from the same institution (summa cum laude avec les félicitations du jury). He has been supported by Swiss National Science Foundation grants and is preparing his habilitation in Legal and Constitutional History at the University of Vienna.
Irene Vázquez Serrano
Ignacio G. Perotti Pinciroli is Assistant Professor of International Law and Human Rights and Director of the Master’s in Human Rights at Universidad Europea de Madrid. He is also a member of the Max Planck Law Fellow Group Communities of Practice and the Transnational Production of Human Rights Knowledge in Latin America, coordinated by René Urueña. He holds a PhD in Law, Governance and Public Policy from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, two LLMs from the same university, and degrees in Law and Criminal Law from Universidad Nacional de Cuyo (Argentina). His research focuses on international law, human rights, the Inter-American Human Rights System, and transitional justice. Before academia, he worked nearly a decade as a legal officer and court clerk in cases concerning crimes against humanity committed during Argentina’s last dictatorship.
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