This course will explore global case studies regarding the relationship between constitutional law and processes of democratic transition and transitional justice. Our emphasis is on cases that have emerged within contexts of crimes against humanity and state violence (including genocide and feminicide), and on the contributions of current developments in comparative constitutional law to an understanding of such processes. We will approach these cases and their theoretical and conceptual implications from a de-colonial, critical, comparative, interdisciplinary, and intercultural perspective. This will include emphasis on exploration of the increasing convergence in such contexts between constitutional law and key provisions of international human rights law.

The focus of the course will be on an overview of the state of the art of the most recent, cutting edge inter-disciplinary scholarship regarding the historical origins, development, and impact, and social and cultural dimensions of the case studies we will explore, and on the responses and perspectives that have been generated by social movements grounded among affected groups.