Dirección: Armin von Bogdandy
Coordinación: Mariela Morales Antoniazzi
For more information see the Spanish page
Our project on an emerging ius constitutionale commune in human rights (ICCAL) is the product of academic exchange between the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law and Latin American experts. ICCAL is a legal but also a cultural and political project steeped in the structural transformation of public law. It is characterized by its objectives, key concepts and challenges. ICCAL’s objectives are to promote the advancement and respect of human rights, democracy and the rule of law, to guide the opening of national legal orders to international law and the configuration of effective and legitimate international institutions.
Some key concepts are dialogue, inclusion and legal pluralism. Its challenges are deep social exclusion and inequality, coupled with high levels of violence and relatively weak state institutions. Main features of the project include a comprehensive approach to public law, principle-based argumentation and the high value placed on comparative law.
The Dormant Clauses of Latin American Integration: Origins, Functions, and Paths for their Awakening - Public and Transformative Law, Ius Commune
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The three key concepts are dialogue, inclusion and legal pluralism. Dialogue in ICCAL is limited to the phenomenon that takes place between courts. The special role that reasoning plays in justifying judicial decisions is highlighted. Dialogue does not require agreement, but it only works if the parties that engage in it understand themselves as participating in a common endeavor. If this element is missing the phenomenon can be characterized as interaction but not dialogue. Inclusion refers to the correction of a situation where persons are not in the capacity to participate in the main social systems: health, education, the economy, politics and even law. In other words, a new public law must combat exclusion. The notion of legal pluralism is instrumental in bringing the debate regarding the relationship between national and international law forward and away from the classical monism/dualism doctrines. Legal pluralism is better equipped as a concept to describe and analyze the post-national constellation. In ICCAL legal pluralism implies rejecting the notion that it constitutes a single legal order; rather it constitutes a mechanism for norms from various legal systems - which serve the same aims - to interact. This common law is made up of international norms, such as those contained in the American Convention on Human Rights, and of national laws with the same objective -- for example the clauses that open up domestic legal orders and interpretative clauses. Pluralism rejects hierarchy as a mechanism to define the relationship between different orders.
In the Latin America legal space there is a budding common culture growing around the body of law, doctrine and jurisprudence on human rights. The ius constitutionale commune project aims at systematizing these developments. A legal community is forming around the American Convention on Human Rights and the Inter-American corpus iuris (made up of the decisions of the two organs of the system, the Inter-American Commission and Court). The fact that constitutions across the Americas share a series of values and principles centered on human dignity and human rights support the creation of such a legal culture and community.
Provisions that open up domestic legal systems, the pro homine principle and the conventionality control, are important catalysts of judicial dialogue. Both the domestic and the Inter-American legal systems benefit from this exchange and one can clearly observe how they have influenced one another. It is important to note, though, that the multi-level model of protection in place means that developments occur at a different frequency and pace across the countries of the region. Nevertheless, the ius constitutionale commune project describes an idea that is worth advancing in the context of democratic constitutionalism.
The handbook is meant to be a descriptive and analytical tome on the creation, evolution and state of the art of constitutional justice in Latin America. The descriptive dimension of this work consists of depicting the institutions, processes and results of constitutional justice in the countries of the region, as well as in identifying the leading cases and future trends in their respective case law. The analytical dimension consists of comparing the institutional setting of constitutional justice in each country, including the role that international institutions play in it. Constitutional justice is central to understanding Latin American constitutional law; it is at the helm of a strategy to constitutionalize law and promote further legal and political integration between the countries of the region.
For an overview of the conceptual framework of the project please see: Armin von Bogdandy, Ius Constitutionale Commune en América Latina: una mirada a un constitutionalismo transformador.
Juan Amaya, Profesor de la Universidad para la Paz
En el marco del 108 Período Ordinario de Sesiones de la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, celebrado en San José-Costa Rica del 13 al 17 de abril de 2015, el profesor Armin von Bogdandy dictó el día 13 de abril de 2015 la conferencia titulada Ius Constitucionale Commune en la sala de audiencias de la Corte Interamericana. Dicha conferencia fue organizada por la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos y el Instituto Max Planck de Derecho Público Comparado y Derecho Internacional Público de Heidelberg, Alemania. La conferencia fue transmitida en vivo a través del enlace: http://corteidh.or.cr/
El Presidente de la Corte hizo entrega al Prof. von Bogdandy del “mazo” de la Corte, en reconocimiento por su extraordinario aporte al fortalecimiento de los derechos humanos.
Profesor Eloy Espinosa Saldaña, Magistrado del Tribunal Constitucional de Perú
Con el objetivo de fortalecer las relaciones de ambas entidades y profundizar el conocimiento del derecho y difundir los instrumentos internacionales para la promoción y defensa de los derechos humanos, todo en beneficio de mejorar la administración de justicia, la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos y el Instituto Max Planck de Derecho Público Comparado y Derecho Internacional Público, con sede en Heidelberg, firman el día de hoy en la sede del Tribunal un acuerdo marco de cooperación.
El mencionado acuerdo, que tenía como antecedente un intercambio de cartas de intención del año 2002, incluye la posibilidad de realizar actividades de investigación y difusión del derecho internacional de los derechos humanos, así como de capacitación e intercambio de recursos bibliográficos entre ambas entidades.
Durante la firma de dicho acuerdo, el Presidente de la Corte Interamericana, Juez Humberto Antonio Sierra Porto, mencionó que ‘‘este acuerdo supone un paso concreto para unir esfuerzos con la academia, que permitan lograr una mejor difusión e investigación del derecho internacional de los derechos humanos’’.
El pasado mes de octubre, en la ciudad de Heidelberg, se definieron los términos de este acuerdo con el Director del Instituto Max Planck, Armin von Bogdandy, que cuenta con el aval de la Codirectora, Anne Peters. Al acto de firma en la Corte Interamericana asistió Mariela Morales Antoniazzi, Referentin para América Latina en el Instituto Max Planck de Derecho Público Comparado y Derecho Internacional Público, así como los jueces de la Corte Interamericana Roberto F. Caldas, Vicepresidente del Tribunal; Manuel E. Ventura Robles; Eduardo Vio Grossi; Eduardo Ferrer Mac-Gregor Poisot y Pablo Saavedra Alessandri, Secretario de la Corte Interamericana.
Celebración del décimo aniversario del Coloquio Iberoamericano y creación de la sección alemana del Instituto Iberoamericano de Derecho Constitucional
Seminario Internacional: Los principios del ICCAL y el derecho internacional económico: Posibles fortalecimientos recíprocos entre constitucionalismo transformador y un derecho sostenible del mercado globalizado, 27 y 28 de Noviembre 2014
Deutsche Hochschule für Verwaltungswissenschaften Speyer (DHV Speyer),
Partner: Prof. Dr. Karl-Peter Sommermann
Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas (IIJ) Universidad Nacional Autonóma de México (UNAM),
Partner: Prof. Dr. Héctor Fix Fierro, Direktor des IIJ-UNAM und Prof. Dr. Diego Valadés, Präsident des iberoamerikanischen Instituts für Verfassungsrecht
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Sao Paulo, Brasilien,
Partner: Prof. Dr. Flavia Piovesan
Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentinien,
Prof. Dr. Laura Clérico
Universidad de los Andes, Colombia,
Prof. Dr. Rodolfo Arango
Konrad Adenauer Stiftung,Rechtsstaatsprogramm für Lateinamerika,
Partner: Dr. Christian Steiner
Universidad del País Vasco,
Partner: Prof. Dr. Juan Ignacio Ugartemendia
Heidelberg Center, Universidad de Heidelberg und Universidad de Chile,
Partner: Prof. Dr. Rainer Grote, Dr. Walter Eckel und Andrea Lucas
250 Profesores de la red del Coloquio Iberoamericano
orden jurídico en un mundo globalizado – construcción del ius constitutionale commune de las comunidades indígenas (Rechtliche Ordnung in einer globalisierten Welt: Herausbildung eines gemeinsamen lateinamerikanischen Verfassungsrechts in Bezug auf die Rechte indigener Völker)
ius constitutionale commune a través del diálogo entre tribunales: un nuevo enfoque de la estatalidad constitucional en América Latina (Gemeinsames lateinamerikanisches Verfassungsrecht durch den Dialog der Gerichte: Ein neuer Zugang zur entstehenden lateinamerikanischen Verfassungsstaatlichkeit) con Universität Frankfurt
Gobernanza global con la UNAM, José María Serna
Crisis de la democracia y reforma de los Partidos Políticos, con Paloma Biglino y Javier Matia Portilla (Universidad Valladolid)
Direction: Armin von Bogdandy
Coordination: Mariela Morales Antoniazzi
Other participating Research Fellows: Rainer Grote, Matthias Hartwig, Ximena Soley, Franz Ebert, Sabrina Ragone, Pedro Villarreal