The DNA of Constitutional Justice in Latin America

"In recent times there has been a dramatic change in the nature and scope of constitutional justice systems in the global south. New or reformed constitutions have proliferated, protecting social, economic, and political rights. While constitutional courts in Latin America have traditionally been used as ways to limit power and preserve the status quo, the evidence shows that they are evolving into a functioning part of contemporary politics and a central component of a system of constitutional justice. This book lays bare the political roots of this transformation, outlining a new way to understand judicial design and the very purpose of constitutional justice. Authors Daniel M. Brinks and Abby Blass use case studies drawn from nineteen Latin American countries over forty years to reveal the ideas behind the new systems of constitutional justice. They show how constitutional designers entrust their hopes and fears to dynamic governance systems, in hopes of directing the development of constitutional meaning over time"-- "This project started many years ago, as an article-length project on the apparent diffusion of new models of courts throughout Latin America. A paper Dan Brinks was writing for APSA dovetailed with a paper Abby Blass was writing for a graduate seminar, and the project evolved through conversations between the two authors after that. Both Abby and Dan had other projects to attend to, so the collaboration moved slowly, but we both felt it was intellectually productive. In its early stages in particular, each of the authors contributed important elements and carried out a mutual back and forth that makes it difficult to separate each author's contributions to the initial conceptualization and measurement exercises. Similarly, the basic argument evolved out of conversations between the authors, with each pushing the other to clarify and specify the argument further. Through conceiving and writing the pieces we have called "Conceptualization" (now an article in the International Journal of Constitutional Law, and largely contained in chapter 2 and the Appendix) and "Determinants" (the theory and quantitative analysis that underpins chapters 3 and 4), we collaborated fully. This is the core of the intellectual contribution of the book, and our joint work on these pieces is the principal, though not the only, reason Abby is credited as a co-author"--