Constitutional Reasoning in Latin America and the Caribbean

This book examines the reasoning practice of 15 constitutional courts and supreme courts, including the Caribbean Commonwealth and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Enriched by empirical data, it strives to contribute to a constructive and well-informed debate, analysing how Latin American courts justify their decisions.

Based on original data and a region-specific methodology, Constitutional Reasoning in Latin America and the Caribbean provides a systematic analysis utilising more than 600 leading cases. It shows which interpretive methods and concepts are most favoured by Latin American courts and highlights which courts are the most prolific in their reasoning activities.

The volume traces the features of judicial dialogue on a regional and sub-regional level, allowing for the evaluation and comparison of each country’s reasoning culture across different epochs. It includes several graphs to visualise the changes and tendencies of reasoning practices over time in the region, based on information gathered from the dataset.

To better understand the current functioning and future tendencies of courts in Latin America and the Caribbean, the volume illuminates how constitutional and supreme courts have been making their decisions in selected landmark cases. This insight could contribute to future successful litigation strategies for both national constitutional courts and the Inter-American Court for Human Rights.

This project was made possible due to the collaboration and funding provided by the Rule of Law Programme for Latin America of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Law School of the University of San Francisco de Quito.