Reseña: ‘Hannah Arendt,’ With Barbara Sukowa and Janet McTeer - NYTimes.com

Una de las reseñas de la película 'Hannah Arendt' publicada ayer en el New York Times:‘Hannah Arendt,’ With Barbara Sukowa and Janet McTeer - NYTimes.com  La peli se estrena esta semana en NYC.

Gracias al queridísimo Pedro Saade por compartirla conmigo.

'via Blog this'

Nuevo libro: Latin American constitutionalism (Roberto Gargarella)

Anunciamos la publicación del más reciente libro Latin American Constitutionalism (Oxford University Press, 2013), de nuestro querido colega y gran amigo, el extraordinario constitucionalista Roberto Gargarella. Roberto hace una contribución importantísima al constitucionalismo y al derecho comparado latinoamericano.  Felicitaciones, Roberto. Dejo los comentarios y descripciones:

"Roberto Gargarella provides a panoramic view of the structures of Latin American constitutionalism in the nineteenth century, and then shows how those structures were both preserved and transformed in the constitutional reforms of the twentieth and early twenty-first. This is a major contribution to the field."--Mark Tushnet, Harvard Law School

"A breathtaking panorama of 200 years of Latin American constitutionalism. The central argument-that implementation of social rights is impeded by the absence of political reforms-will undoubtedly provoke widespread debates well beyond Latin America."--Adam Przeworski, New York University

"An extraordinary achievement. Gargarella-widely recognized as one of the best constitutional scholars of our time-has come up with a path-breaking analysis of the Latin American constitutional tradition. Examining the constitutional issues that Latin American statesmen and jurists have dealt with in the last two centuries, Gargarella identifies patterns and insights which greatly illuminate our understanding of Latin America's constitutional trajectory. He skillfully links constitutional history, constitutional theory, and socio-legal analysis in a work destined to become canonical in the field of comparative constitutional law and theory. This is an indispensable book not only for scholars of Latin American constitutionalism and history, but for anyone interested in the current processes of constitutional reform in the region."--Javier Couso, Universidad Diego Portales Law School (Chile)

"Roberto Gargarella has written a wonderful, remarkably sweeping, forcefully argued book on Latin American constitutionalism. Drawing together philosophy, political science, history, and constitutional law, he presents a compelling analysis of Latin American constitutions and constitutional traditions. He complements that analysis with a powerful normative-practical thrust. Latin America, he says, needs to reject Presidentialist and centralist traditions and embrace an egalitarian constitutionalism that unites strong protections of individual autonomy with a subordination of power to norms of collective self-government. Moving in these new directions will require reformers to concentrate on how constitutions organize power, not simply how they enumerate rights."--Joshua Cohen, Stanford University

Human beings as machines of self-interest (J.M. Coetzee)

November 11, 2010

Dear Paul,

...

Since I last wrote, you have had elections in the U.S., and the Republicans have resurged in force. I won't ask you to explain. But this is beginning to look like an interesting moment in history (and I don't just mean U.S. history).

Since about 1970, a pretty mean vision has been propagated and encouraged and allowed to take over the direction of the planet, a vision of human beings as machines of self-interest and of economic activity as a contest of all against all for material spoils (economy: properly the nomos of the oikos, the regulation of the household).

As a consequence a debased notion of what constitutes political life has come to prevail, and has in turn given rise to a pretty contemptuous view of what constitutes the practice of politics. Thus the same politicians who did nothing to counter the mean vision of social life get to feel the fury and contempt, the furious contempt, of voters who see them as little more than machines of self-interest themselves. The word "trust" has lost all purchase. If today a politician were to utter on a public platform the words, "I ask you to trust me", he would be laughed down, no matter how sincerely he meant it".

Yours in dark times,

John.

(From Here and Now: Letters, 2008-2011, J.M. Coetzee and Paul Auster, p. 194)

Nuevo libro: Constitutionalism of the Global South (Daniel Bonilla)

Nuestro colega y amigo Daniel Bonilla publica un nuevo libro sobre constitucionalismo en el Sur global (India, Sudáfrica y Colombia) en Cambridge University Press. Dejo el enlace y la descripción. Enhorabuena a Daniel y a los y las colaboradoras.

Constitutionalism of the Global South

The Activist Tribunals of India, South Africa, and Colombia

Edited by Daniel Bonilla Maldonado

424 pp

The Indian Supreme Court, the South African Constitutional Court, and the Colombian Constitutional Court have been among the most important and creative courts in the Global South. In Asia, Africa, and Latin America, these courts are widely seen as activist tribunals that have contributed (or attempted to contribute) to the structural transformation of the public and private spheres of their countries. The cases issued by these three courts are gradually creating what can be called a constitutionalism of the Global South.

This book addresses in a direct and detailed way the jurisprudence of these three Courts on three key topics: access to justice, cultural diversity, and socioeconomic rights. This volume is a valuable contribution to the discussion about the contours and structure of contemporary constitutionalism. It makes explicit that this discussion has interlocutors both in the Global South and Global North while showing the common discourse between them and the important differences on how they interpret and solve key constitutional problems.