—Leonardo García Jaramillo, Universidad EAFIT, Government and Political Science Department-Colombia[*]
In Latin America during the last three decades, the law (and particularly constitutional law) has been changing dramatically both anatomically and physiologically. It has become more widespread and more powerful, transforming its structure and shape, while its functions have grown in a more complex and inter-related way.
Although countries in the region have historically had fractured and blurred borders with respect to the processes of legal interpretation and political institutionalization the interactions have evolved significantly. There is no longer an exclusively vertical relationship between countries exporting rules, principles, institutions and jurisprudence (the so-called global North) and those importing such legal resources (the so-called global South).
Interactions are becoming increasingly horizontal between global South countries. Creatively dealing with judicial, theoretical and doctrinal input from the global North, Latin American countries like Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Argentina have begun to generate their own legal discourse. Incentivizing dialogic mechanisms and mutual references among local constitutional courts has been one of the most interesting features of these horizontal interactions.[1]
Dialogic mechanisms evolved during the last few decades are vivid expressions of the trans-nationalization of constitutional law in Latin America. Such dialogue has occurred primarily among countries which, during the last three decades, have undertaken constitutional amendments featuring important organic (i.e., creation of constitutional courts) and dogmatic (i.e., new rights and principles) changes.
