Utopian Neoconstitutionalism in Ecuador

Abstract

The report reviews a conceptual historical analysis of the neo-constitutional paradigm in Latin America and Ecuador, in order to identify the ideas that inspire transnational legal policy projects. Then, it shows the actors and ideas that had expression in the Montecristi constituent process in Ecuador. In this way to demonstrate the intervention of law intellectuals that influenced the constitutional design based on the neo-constitutional paradigm of Ecuador. Finally, from the arguments written and from conceptual developments attributed to historical institutionalism in Ecuador, it is argued that neo-constitutionalism in Montecristi is an unarmed utopia, not only because of the problems inherent in a normativist and peripheral language, but also, due to the political and social conditions of the polis that seeks to transform.

This effort also aims to raise questions about legal thought in Ecuador and Latin America, from criticism to neo-constitutionalism, a paradigm that transforms reality into an addition of the norm. It carries strong limits as an “ideal type”, in an institutional context in which the policy makers are not willing to transfer to the
legal field the most relevant conflicts of the democratic process.