RechtsRggeschichteZeitschrift desMax-Planck-Institutsfür europäischeRechtsgeschichte

HerausgeberThomas Duve

RedaktionKathrin Linderer

Rg16 2010

Thomas Duve 16 Verfassung und Verfassungsrecht in Latein-amerika im Licht des bicentenarioEinleitung zur Debatte

Walther L. Bernecker, Rüdiger Zoller 18 Mimesis und fehlender KonsensAnmerkungen zur Verfassungswirklichkeit in Latein-amerika

Natalio R. Botana 22 Los pactos constitucionales del Bicentenario

Bartolomé Clavero 25 Original Latin American Constitutionalism

Manuel Lucena Giraldo 29 Three Meanings of Liberty on the Independenceof Spanish America

Horst Dippel 32 Braucht Lateinamerika einen neuen Konstitu-tionalismus?

Juan Fernando Segovia 35 Die Entkräftung des hispanoamerikanischenKonstitutionalismus

Joaquín García�Huidobro 40 Der schwierige hispanoamerikanische Konsti-tutionalismus

Tamar Herzog 48 Constitution and Constitutional Law inSpanish America in light of the Bicentennial

Delia M. Ferreira Rubio 50 The Constitution – Latin America 2010

Paola Rudan 52 Una storia impossibileDuecento anni di Stato e democrazia in America Latina

Francisco J. Andrés Santos 55 Zum Thema »Verfassung und Verfassungsrechtin Iberoamerika im Hinblick auf die Zweihun-dertjahrfeier«

Pablo Ruiz�Tagle 59 El constitucionalismo iberoamericano en subicentenario

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Horst Pietschmann 62 Anmerkungen zum Thema »200 Jahre latein-amerikanische Verfassungen«

Andreas Timmermann 66 »Failed presidencies«?Zur Debatte um zwei Jahrhunderte Präsidialismus inLateinamerika

Manuel Chust Calero 69 Die Verfassung von 1812 und der iberoameri-kanische KonstitutionalismusEin Vergleich

Alfonso Santiago 78 Constitutionalism and Spanish-AmericanBicentennialConstitutional norms and social reality: Juan BautistaAlberdi’s thoughts and Argentina’s historical experience

Abelardo Levaggi 82 Three Matters Concerning Argentine Consti-tutional History

Santiago Legarre 85 A Departure from the Rationale behind theAmerican System in the Argentine Constitution

Susana T. Ramella 88 Die Re-präsentation der Volksrepräsentationbei der Zweihundertjahrfeier der Mai-Revolu-tion in Argentinien

Alberto David Leiva 91 Sovereignty and Federalism as ConstituentElements of Argentine Nationality

Cristina M. Seghesso de López 94 De Charcas al Río de la PlataCultura jurídica y élites políticas revolucionarias(1809–1810)

Airton Cerqueira�Leite Seelaender 97 Verfassung und Verfassungsrecht in Brasilien(1824–1988)

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Luis Ossio Sanjinés, Lorena Ossio Bustillos 104 Kontinuität und historisch-konstitutionellerUmbruchDer Befreiungsprozess in Bolivien 1809–1810 ausheutiger Perspektive

Eric Eduardo Palma González 108 Die moralische Frage bei der Bildung desVerfassungsstaatsChile im 19. Jh.: ein katholischer, liberaler Staat auspraktizierenden Regierenden und Bürgern

Natalia Sobrevilla Perea 111 In Search of a Better Society: Constitutionsin Peru

Rubén Darío Salas 114 Die konstitutionelle Grammatik: ihre Aussich-ten in Iberoamerika

Roberto Di Stefano 117 Religion, Politics and Law in 19th CenturyLatin America

Massimo Meccarelli 121 Die neue Phase der Rechtsgeschichte in Latein-amerika und Ansätze für einen historiographi-schen Dialog mit Europa

Heinz Mohnhaupt 126 Europäische Blicke von Europa über Europahinaus und zurückZur Wahrnehmung südamerikanischer Verfassungenim 18./19. Jahrhundert

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Thomas Duve 132 Das Konzil als AutorisierungsinstanzDie Priesterweihe von Mestizen vor dem DrittenLimenser Konzil (1582/83) und die Kommunikationüber Recht in der spanischen Monarchie

Ezequiel Abásolo 154 La militarización borbónica de las Indias comotrasfondo de las experiencias políticas revolu-cionarias rioplatenses

Eduardo Zimmermann 166 »Die Härten des Krieges mildern«Die Rolle der argentinischen Bundesjustiz bei denProvinzaufständen 1860–1880

Rodrigo Míguez Núñez 190 Republikanischer Staat und indigenes Land:Die Erfahrungen in der Andenregion im19. Jahrhundert

Jesús M. Casal H. 212 El constitucionalismo latinoamericano y laoleada de reformas constitucionales en la regiónandina

Fernando Martínez Peréz 242 Amparos posesorios e interdictos contra laAdministraciónCultura jurisdiccional y revolución burguesa en España

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Daniel Damler 258 Das Meer im RechtJack P. Greene, Philip D. Morgan (Hg.), Atlantic Histo-ry. A Critical Appraisal

John H. Elliott, Empires of the Atlantic world. Britainand Spain in America 1492–1830

Bernard Bailyn, Atlantic History. Concept and Contours

Horst Pietschmann (Hg.), Atlantic History. History ofthe Atlantic System 1580–1830

Jorge Alberto Núñez 267 De Imperios Atlánticos, revoluciones y senderosque se bifurcanJeremy Adelman, Sovereignty and Revolution in theIberian Atlantic

Luigi Nuzzo 269 Aspettando GenevaBartolomé Clavero, El Orden de los poderes. Historiasconstituyentes de la trinidad constitucional

Juan Ferrer 272 Una receta para la diversidadDaniel Bonilla Maldonado, La Constitución Multicul-tural

Marta Lorente Sariñena 275 Entre la conquista y D. Benito Juárez,¿la república?Annick Lempérière, Entre Dieu et le Roi, la République.Mexico, XVIe–XIXe siècles

Sergio Angeli 277 Justicia penalAlejandro Agüero, Castigar y perdonar cuando convienea la República. La justicia penal de Córdoba del Tucu-mán, siglos XVII y XVIII

Francisco J. Andrés Santos 279 Juristas On His Majesty’s ServiceEnrique García Hernán, Consejero de ambos mundos.Vida y obra de Juan de Solórzano Pereira (1575–1655)

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Juan B. Cañizares Navarro 288 Cochabamba, Bolivien, Januar 1789 – August1791Ein Beitrag zu bildlichen Darstellungen unmenschlicherund entwürdigender Behandlungen

Miloš Vec 293 Juristischer PolyzentrismusWie unterrichtet man vergleichende europäischeRechtsgeschichte?

Abstracts 302

Autoren 304

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Three Meanings of Liberty on the Independenceof Spanish America*In a brilliant reflection about the history of

Mexico contained at the beginning of Sor Jua-na, Or, The Traps of Faith (1982), Octavio Pazstated that the Spanish American revolution-aries who embarked on the movements for in-dependence in 1810 were inspired by enlight-ened ideas, because apparently »there was nopolitical thought that could provide intellectualand moral justification for their rebellion.« Cer-tainly, throughout the liberation movements, theenlightened modernity, highly regarded amongthe members of Spanish American elites, coveredup the importance of a Hispanic constitutionaltradition, whose languages and political usesrooted in baroque tradition were as much dis-dained by the said elites as comprehended bymestizos [half-breed], mulatos [mulattos], indig-enous people and slaves. Being connected tomedieval prerogatives and to the rights of ve-cinos [neighbours] and descendants of the »wor-thy conquistadors«, who had founded the king-doms of the Indies in the 16th century, thispolitical thought included theories of Jesuit ori-gin about a critique of tyrannical governmentsand the justification of assassinating a head ofstate as a way of bringing despotic governmentsto an end. Or strong criticism by criollos [per-sons of European descent born in Spanish Amer-ica] of the excesses by ignorant and troublesomeministers, who arrived periodically from Spainto govern the Americas with disastrous resultsboth for the king and his subjects.

The Spanish imperial crisis that took placebetween 1808 and 1825 and which gave way toa European peninsular Spain and to multipleLatin American republics may be regarded as

part of a process of constitutional adaptation inthe Atlantic world, with some elements commonto other cases and some elements that are spe-cific. The former refer to the integration of therevolutionary independence movements in Span-ish America in the transforming cycle that beganin 1776 with the independence of the UnitedStates, continued with the French Revolutionin 1789, returned to the Atlantic coast of theAmericas with the independence of Haiti in1804, and culminated in the independence ofthe Ibero-American nations, including that ofBrazil, between 1810 and 1825.

But the specific elements of independencemovements in Spanish America are also decisive,to such an extent that they explain their duration– fifteen years of conflict under three differenttypes of war: first civic, then civil and finallypatriotic – as well as their internal dynamics. Atdifferent times this seems to have led to civilianand old patrias bobas [»foolish nations«] result-ing in total failure (from 1810 to 1814); overabsolute governments (from 1815 to 1817); tomilitary states and camps both in the royalist andin the patriotic factions (from 1818 to 1820); toattempts at liberal federations under the influ-ence of the Cadiz Constitution (1821–1822);and to political fragmentation, which droveSimón Bolívar to declare in his last days, »Lib-erty is the only asset we have gained at theexpense of all others.« Bolívar’s bitterness evi-dences not only his disappointment, but also hisinability to understand Latin American reality,whose integral elements are not homogeneoussocial and ethnical segments of population, butbaroque republics with particular and diverse

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* Historical Epistemology Project-Mobility Grant, HUM 2007–63267/FISO, 2009–2010, SpanishMinistry of Science and Innova-tion

corporations, prerogatives, ethnic groups andregulations. Compared with the legal abstractionand the liberal notion of citizenship expressed asa set of rights and duties that national heroessuch as Bolívar tried to establish, the constituentelements of the Spanish monarchy were thoseof a superior monarchical body composed of a»compact« union of kingdoms. The enlightenedmachinery challenged the baroque entity, and aninsurmountable clash between different mean-ings of liberty ensued. The confusion that Amer-ican Spaniards were thrown into as from 1808was the result of this clash, foreshadowing anuncertain future under those circumstances.

After the French invasion of the metropolis,European Spaniards took up arms while Amer-ican Spaniards, disconcerted and worried, un-derwent a substantial change of political culture.At least three different meanings of the termliberty lay before them – the term »liberal« it-self was about to be coined in the debates ofthe Cadiz Constitution – »to express everythingthat, on account of its spirit and inclination,conspired against the establishment and con-solidation of liberty.« Firstly, there was the lib-erty of ancient times, defined as the right to electone’s own governments and magistrates. InSpanish America, this liberty was often defendedby resorting to the origins of the criollo politicalcommunity in the conquest of Spanish America,as, for instance, compared to, the Visigothicmonarchy and the Reconquista [Reconquest] ofthe Iberian Peninsula from the Muslims whoallegedly founded »European Spain«. Secondly,there was the liberty of the estates connected tothe specific prerogatives of recognised corpora-tions – guilds or consulates were very importantin this stage since, from 1793 to 1795, merchantguilds were set up in Caracas, Guatemala, Bue-nos Aires, Havana, Cartagena, Veracruz, Gua-

dalajara and Santiago de Chile. Finally, the»modern« liberties had just taken shape andwere connected to new sovereign entities: repre-sentative government, the separation of powers,division between public and private matters,elections, constitutions, the citizen, the rule oflaw and equality under the law. All the politicalagents that acted in both Spain and SpanishAmerica as from 1808 and 1810, respectively,not only learned about and exercised these threemeanings of liberty but, in order to be under-stood, also had to interrelate and apply themaccording to a segment of opportunity. Or, to putit another way, they had to transform a baroquereality that required their application accordingto concrete circumstances or individualities.

As noted above, the clash between thesethree ideas of liberty – understood as patriotismin ancient times, prerogatives and own regula-tions, or self-determination in modern times –favoured the emergence of different politicallanguages, capable of arousing emotions and,eventually, of producing rather fortunate consti-tutional designs. This clash also makes it possibleto explain the chronology of Spanish Americanindependence movements. One of the mysteriesof the period is the gap between the onset of thewar of independence in the Iberian Peninsula inMay 1808 and the Spanish American liberationmovement beginning in Caracas on 19 April1810. During these two years, many loyal white,mulato and indigenous Latin Americans contrib-uted both men, money and a variety of goods,such as cocoa, coffee beans or leather, toward thepeninsular resistance to Napoleon. Needless tosay, very little research on this chapter of SpanishAmerican loyalty to imperial Spain has beenundertaken. For those who built a republicanmythology with criollo elements and peninsularinsult accounting for every development, it was

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not convenient to recall that Argentina’s libera-tor José de San Martín had been a prominentofficer of the Spanish army at Bailén; or thatthe Chilean hero José Miguel Carrera began hismilitary career fighting against Napoleon in theIberian Peninsula, eventually rising to the rankof captain; or that the admirable mulato JoséPrudencio Padilla, executed by firing squadunder Bolívar’s government (1828) for allegedconspiracy, had fought with the Spanish Navy atTrafalgar, where he was taken and held prisonerby the British for three years.

On another note, a reconstruction of eventsshows that in the referred two-year period com-mencing in 1808 the old constitution took effectin the Spanish monarchy, based upon loyaltyin its baroque meaning, that is to say, as themanifestation of an attitude that expected a justreward and benefits (freedom of trade, to beprecise) in exchange for fidelity and service.This explains why questions were raised forautonomy and the establishment of juntas, butnot for actual independence. If this first stage ofloyalty lasted until April 1810, the second oneelapsed in 1815. The explanation seems clearenough. Revolutions for independence were setin motion when social order was jeopardised, inthe face of authorities suspicious of being Fran-cophile or designated by Joseph I Bonaparte.Spanish America would never become part ofNapoleon’s empire. Thus, with a vacant throne(the king was held captive in France) and devoidof sovereignty, Spanish Americans staged severalrevolutions in Venezuela, the River Plate, NewGranada, New Spain, Chile and Quito whichopened the door to a phase aiming at the con-stitutional reconstruction of the Spanish mon-archy in the Atlantic.

In 1815, after four years of conflict, it wasobvious that the revolutionary movements set in

motion five years before had failed, except inBuenos Aires and in isolated Paraguay. GeneralSan Martín remained hidden in the interior ofthe River Plate, safe from friends and politicalopponents alike. Venezuelan pioneer Miranda,as well as the Mexican Morelos were reachingtheir final days – the former in prison in Cádiz,the latter before a firing squad –, Bolívar was afailed hero wandering aimlessly through theCaribbean region. The liberation cause was dis-credited, defeated mostly by entrenched royalistsor loyal Latin American elements rather thanby the interventions of the Regency, which hadgoverned the metropolis from 1810 to 1814. Buta great change was taking place. Ferdinand VIIreturned to the throne to quash liberals andrestore absolutism, now under the form of ul-tramontanism, which originated as a reactionagainst the French Revolution. Royalists rebuilttheir strength while republicans adopted a mostdefensive position and moderates took heartfrom the king’s intimidations to defend the in-troduced reforms. It is precisely in the triumphof Ferdinand’s absolutism that the true seed ofSpanish American independence was contained.His intimidations and abuse of power paved theway for military victories by the members of thepatriotic faction, who, unlike the royalists, didlearn from their mistakes and made use of thelaw and the constitutions to tip the political scalein their favour, thus appealing to the vast major-ities composed of mestizos, free negroes, mulatosand even indigenous peoples, a sine qua non forthe victory of one of the factions at war. Ulti-mately, it was baroque law applied to concreteregulations and persons that enabled SpanishAmerican independence and not the Eurocentricabstraction of enlightened law.

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