CRITICAL TRANSFORMATIONS OF THE STATE IN LATIN AMERICA: CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL AND LEGAL CHALLENGES.
The study of the State in Latin America demands an interdisciplinary approach that brings together political theory, constitutional law, international law and legal sociology. The region’s current context is marked by constant tension between demands for internal governability, the requirements of global markets, the effective guarantee of human rights, and crises of democratic representation.
This symposium is proposed as a space for scientific debate to analyze, from its fundamental problems, the institutional, normative and discursive mutations affecting the Latin American State. Beyond traditional diagnoses, the panel seeks to propose analytical alternatives and practical solutions to the crises of legitimacy and sovereignty that shape the regional scenario heading into the twenty-first century.
To ensure a call representative of political and legal studies, the symposium will be organized around the following five lines of research:
Line 1: Between Besieged Sovereignty and the Cosmopolitan Ethos. Focused on the reconfiguration of the State in the face of twenty-first-century globalism. It analyzes how the expansion of transnational economic logics strains political sovereignty and limits the State’s capacity to regulate the economy and promote social justice. It also examines nationalist, protectionist or defensive responses in the region and the possibility of building a cosmopolitan horizon based on global responsibility, solidarity and democratic deliberation.
Line 2: Constitutionalism, Human Rights and Social Justice. Assessment of the impact of the constitutionality block and conventionality control on the institutional design of Latin American States. Issues related to the legal enforceability of Economic, Social, Environmental and Cultural Rights (ESECR), the role of judicial activism in the face of legislative omission, and the legal challenges of inclusion and human dignity in highly unequal contexts.
Line 3: Crisis of Deliberative Democracy, Representation and New Political Discourses. Analysis of the phenomena of polarization, the rise of contemporary populisms, and the closing of political space in the region. This line calls for papers addressing citizen disaffection, the transformation of political parties, the impact of digital technologies on democratic deliberation, and the institutional reconstruction of public space and mechanisms for citizen participation.
Line 4: Legal Pluralism, Local Governance and Emancipatory Alternatives. Exploration of the tensions between formal state law and indigenous, Afro-descendant and community legal systems. This line will debate the emancipatory alternatives arising from Latin American political and legal tradition in the face of hegemonic globalization, prioritizing subaltern responses, critical criminal law, ecological transitions, and new forms of renewed sovereignty grounded in territory.
Line 5: E-Government, Digital Justice and Technopolicing. This line addresses the intersection between information technologies, public administration and the justice system in Latin America. It calls for research on the digitalization of the State (e-government), the implementation of Artificial Intelligence in public decision-making, and the automation of judicial processes (Digital Justice).
