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Constitutionalism is not a Latin American creation, but rather a European and American import. Its implantation throughout these region has been particularly difficult, as shown by the fact that in two centuries of independence, they produced over 200 constitutional texts. This paper gives an analysis of some historical causes of this constitutional instability in Latin America. It also shows how constitutionalism has brought about a number of significant results In the region nonetheless, despite the divorce which often exists between the real and the apparent constitution, and the general lack of confidence in Constitutions. A particular importance is ascribed to Constitutional Litigation Law, whose institutions are in force and are respected in countries where the social legitimacy of Constitutions is rather slight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the objective of this research paper is to reflect on the impact that the appearance and development of International Human Rights Law has had on the functioning of different national law systems, specifically in Latin America, and to identify some of the interesting and demanding challenges, both theoretical and practical, that this phenomenon poses to the world of law. In the analysis of these transformations, some of the questions addressed are: the juridical grounding of the former; the complex task of how to harmonize, both political and legally, the national and international instances; some practical and operative problems that have appeared with the rise of the international courts that specialise in these issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]