Ius Constitutionale Commune en América Latina (ICCAL)
What is ICCAL?
Ius Constitutionale Commune en America Latina (ICCAL) is an academic project that studies the promotion, respect, and guarantee of human rights, democracy, and the rule of law in that region.
ICCAL explores the common features shared by public law systems in Latin America, as well as their particular interaction between international law and national law. It also analyzes the consolidation of a particularly vibrant community of practice in the region, and studies the combination of the above factors as the conditions that make possible the emergence and development of a common law (i.e., an "Ius Commune") in Latin America, of comparatively relevant characteristics.
As a regional approach to Latin American transformational constitutionalism, ICCAL seeks to provide a normative and constitutional response to the structural deficits and difficult socio-economic conditions that characterize most countries in the region. In this way, ICCAL examines common problems such as the exclusion of broad sectors of society, the difficulty in fully guaranteeing rights, and weak normative systems.
ICCAL describes a legal practice already established at the transnational level, which in turn creates spaces for academic and professional interaction. Thus, it serves as a link between inter-American legal instruments, such as the American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR), national constitutions, and international law. All this, of course, without turning its back on the social processes that always influence the evolution of law.
Ultimately, Ius Constitutionale Commune en America Latina is a working platform for academics, jurists, civil society activists, judges, civil servants, and social leaders from Latin America and other regions of the world. As such, it is a multidisciplinary collective that supports social transformations through the law, in order to materialize the main promises of national constitutions and human rights treaties that have emerged in the region throughout the second half of the XX century and the beginning of the XXI.
Background
The Ius Constitutionale Commune en América Latina was born out of an interaction between European and Latin American scholars and builds on the foundations left by a great tradition of scholarly articles on public law and comparative constitutionalism in Latin America.
In particular, the ICCAL advances the agenda set by Latin American "neo-constitutionalism" at the end of the twentieth century, developing its firm commitment to the realization of the values and principles that constitute the normative core of national constitutions, as well as its emphasis on the hermeneutic focus of constitutional adjudication and on the opening of public law to international human rights law.
Since 2004, the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Public Law (Heidelberg) has hosted the Ibero-American Colloquium, convened by Prof. Dr. Armin von Bogdandy and Dr. Mariela Morales. Created as a forum for the exchange of ideas, projects and challenges in the field of constitutional, comparative and international law in Latin America, the Colloquium has become a space for the development and collective creation of the Ius Constitutionale Commune en América Latina.
Building on the experience of the Colloquium, the ICCAL network has been growing for almost two decades. Today, the network includes various academic and human rights institutions, with hundreds of members from different countries and several academic collaborations. It works closely with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, as well as with numerous national courts and institutions in the region, and collaborates with civil society organizations, movements and programs/associations dedicated to the triad of the rule of law, human rights and democracy.
Within the project’s framework, dozens of international conferences have been organized, and more than 20 books and multiple articles in academic journals have been published. Summer schools and online courses have also been organized, allowing the project to reach a wide audience internationally, with a particular focus on Latin America.
What is the analytical function of ICCAL?
ICCAL is characterized by its analytical function, its normative position, and its methodological approach.
Regarding its analytical function, ICCAL starts from the premise that legal analysis should focus on the interaction between norms, regimes, and institutions. Thus, the project focuses on the interaction between national constitutions and international law, exemplified in Latin America by the Inter-American Human Rights System.
In its analytical function, ICCAL explores how Inter-American developments have permeated, informed, and strengthened domestic transformative discourses. In particular, ICCAL focuses on understanding and explaining how national and Inter-American institutions apply the principles of public law and human rights, leading to the emergence of a particular law with its own identity and significance for the definition of the content and scope of the law on a global scale.
ICCAL also examines the dynamic processes of legal influence and diffusion, by identifying common elements in national systems and how they are transmitted to the international arena, as well as the use of these common elements by a vibrant community of human rights practitioners in Latin America. Similarly, ICCAL's analytical approach also allows for the study of the institutional weaknesses existing in the region, a situation that hinders the full realization of the promises set forth in the constitutions and that generates challenges for the promotion of democracy, the effectiveness of the rule of law and the protection of human rights.
Thus, the analytical function of ICCAL makes it possible to observe the evolution of a common Latin American legal space and describe the characteristics of such "inter-Americanization" of law in the region. To this end, ICCAL analyzes various legal techniques and doctrines (such as the control of conventionality, or the justiciability of economic, social, and cultural rights), emphasizes the importance of judicial dialogue, inclusiveness, and/or constitutional pluralism in Latin America, and highlights the role of the community of practice in the development of the region's Ius Commune and its transformative potential.
What is ICCAL’s Normative position?
ICCAL is characterized by its analytical function, its normative position, and its methodological approach.
In terms of its normative position, the Ius Constitutionale Commune in Latin America promotes transformative constitutionalism - specifically, it defends respect for human rights, democratic values and the rule of law as objectives that should guide social transformation, and considers the law to be an appropriate mechanism for achieving them. It therefore focuses on multiplying the tools that can generate, through the law, the transformative practices needed in Latin America.
ICCAL's normative function supports the specific impulse of transformative constitutionalism in Latin America, which was incorporated or renewed by the constitutional projects that emerged after the period of authoritarian regimes. ICCAL's objective is to ensure that the central promises of national constitutions are effectively or materially implemented throughout the region, and that the different countries of the region are integrated into a mutually supportive structure. Its mechanisms are the dissemination of human rights standards, the reduction of deficits in the protection of rights, and the promotion of a new dynamic of empowerment of social actors.
At the heart of ICCAL's agenda are two elements. The first is to address the deep shortcomings that exist in many countries in the region. These deficiencies are often rooted in weak institutions and generate insecurity, impunity and corruption. It is not possible to have a genuine constitutional democracy without overcoming these deficiencies. The second element relates to the unacceptable living conditions affecting large sections of the population. The so-called vulnerable groups are of particular concern. The Ius Constitutionale Commune in Latin America is firmly committed to combating exclusion. Therefore, reducing inequality, violence and social exclusion, as well as strengthening state institutions, are the main objectives of the study on legal spaces to generate solutions to the problem of exclusion.
The set of legal instruments that ICCAL brings together offers the possibility of having the ideal structures to promote this transformative agenda. It is a solid network of institutions and individuals that have used these structures to trigger relevant transformative dynamics. Despite the various problems that still affect the region, the parameters within which power must be justified and the objectives that it can pursue have changed. ICCAL brings together different strands of the transformative discourse in order to make it more powerful and highlights the role of law in transforming societies. In addition, ICCAL emphasises the responsibility of law and scholarship in the face of systemic or structural deficits.
What is ICCAL's methodological approach?
ICCAL is characterized by its analytical function, its normative position, and its methodological approach.
In terms of its methodological approach, ICCAL is guided by a comparative mindset that explores the links between national systems and international law. ICCAL goes beyond the traditional view of monism vs. dualism and emphasizes the value of the interaction that exists between national courts and the inter-American system, as well as between different national institutions. The ICCAL methodology highlights the role of the community of practice of human rights in Latin America in the construction of the region's common law.
ICCAL is characterized by the combination of academic research on national and international law, a comparative orientation, and a principled methodology, specifically towards the triad: human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. Its logic is incremental, and rights are its main focus and instrument.
ICCAL's methodology recognizes ethnic and cultural diversity and pluralism in line with its commitment against exclusion; specifically, it focuses on how the Inter-American Court of Human Rights respects the diverse forms of social and cultural law that coexist in Latin America.
Transformative constitutionalism is a global phenomenon. For this reason, the path traced by ICCAL for Latin America is of interest in many other parts of the world, especially because of its comparative and multilevel dimensions. Researchers in countries where transformative constitutionalism is less common may find reasons to be interested in Latin America's contribution to constitutionalism. It is also an opportunity to reflect on the extent to which concepts from the Global North can be considered truly universal. At the same time, ICCAL offers a lesson for all those who believe that the essential concepts of Northern constitutionalism have been exhausted. Indeed, those who think so may find new energy in contemporary debates in Latin America.
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ICCAL Videos in Spanish