Abstract

The article is divided in three parts. The first analyzes the temporal link between new Constitutions or constitutional reforms in the subcontinent and ascent of progressive governments. The second considers the methodological perspectives of analysis of this link and distinguishes between an internal dimension of observation, mainly favorable to judge the link positively, and a foreign dimension, which instead highlights contradictions and limits of progressive constitutional experiences. The third part argues the existence of a sort of Latin American "Enemy's Constitutional Law", determined by the instrumental use of the rules, and discusses the importance of the initiative of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for the construction of a "common constitutional standard" "of the regularity of the forms of government.