Constitutional Backsliding: Colombia

doi:10.1017/9781108699068.023

22 - Constitutional Backsliding: Colombia

from VII - Challenges to Liberal Democratic Constitutionalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 February 2022

David Landau

Edited by

David S. Law

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David S. Law: Affiliation:
University of Virginia

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Summary

Recent scholarship has highlighted the theoretical possibility and examples of the tools of constitutional change being used “abusively,” in order to erode the democratic order. This chapter will explore the experience of constitutional backsliding in Colombia, and the response to those efforts by the Colombian Constitutional Court and other political actors. The chapter will explain the utility of a well-developed doctrine of unconstitutional constitutional amendment as a response to potentially abusive amendments such as term limit extensions. However, it will also highlight the dependence of such a doctrinal response on particular political conditions that often do not hold throughout Latin America.

Keywords

Constitutional Backsliding Abusive Constitutionalism Constitutional Change Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendment Colombian Constitutional Court Uribe Term Limits Populism Colombia Venezuela

Type: Chapter
Information: Constitutionalism in Context , pp. 497 - 516

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108699068.023 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2022

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References

Primary Sources

Landau, David, ‘Abusive Constitutionalism’ (2013) 47 UC Davis Law Review 189.Google Scholar

Roznai, Yaniv, Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendments: The Limits of Amendment Powers (Oxford University Press, 2017).Google Scholar

Scheppele, Kim Lane, ‘The Rule of Law and the Frankenstate: Why Governance Checklists Do Not Work’ (2013) 26 Governance 559.Google Scholar

Secondary Sources

Cepeda-Espinosa, Manuel José, ‘Judicial Activism in a Violent Context: The Origin, Role, and Impact of the Colombian Constitutional Court’ (2004) 3 Washington University Global Studies Law Review 529.Google Scholar

Cepeda Espinosa, Manuel José and Landau, David, Colombian Constitutional Law: Leading Cases (Oxford University Press, 2017).Google Scholar

Landau, David, ‘Political Institutions and Judicial Role in Comparative Constitutional Law’ (2010) 51 Harvard International Law Journal 319.Google Scholar