Abstract

The theoretical approach sustaining Viola and Trujillo's book is that of human right as a 'social practice'. According to that hermeneutics, law in general and human rights, are not only a 'legal practice' but a much more complex and richer 'cooperative enterprise' aiming at establishing a normative order. In this perspective not only legal sources and institutions are relevant but also interpretation and argumentation. This hermeneutical approach is extremely useful not only to correctly understand human rights, but more broadly Constitutional Theory in contemporary era. Constitutional Rights today are an increasingly complex (not 'one-dimensional') system, requiring an equally rich and complex interpretive approach. Human Rights Theories as (only) legal norms, courts' jurisprudence, political actions, social practices are - as far as they are separated readings -unsatisfactory. Viola and Truijllo book, helps to understand the reason of that complexity. In particular, one among other causes of present-day human rights' complexity, is their 'constitutionalization', under three aspects. The first the 'double track' of post-WWII constitutions: on the one hand, the new national constitutions and, on the other, the international-supranational dimension of human rights protection. The second aspect is the 'pluralistic' nature of contemporary constitutions (and the connected constitutional disagreement) The third is the 'social' nature of contemporary constitutions with the related need of a thick 'constitutional implementation' generating social and legal conflicts.