Dismantling Democracy in Venezuela: The Chávez Authoritarian Experiment

This book examines the process of dismantling the democratic institutions and protections in Venezuela under the Hugo Chávez regime. The actions of the Chávez government have influenced similar processes and undemocratic maneuverings in Ecuador, Bolivia, and Honduras. Since the election of Hugo Chávez as president of Venezuela in 1998, a sinister form of nationalistic authoritarianism has arisen at the expense of long-established democratic standards. During the past decade, the 1999 Venezuelan Constitution has been systematically attacked by all branches of the Chávez government, particularly by the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, which has legitimized the Chávez-ordered constitutional violations. The Chávez regime has purposely defrauded the Constitution and severely restricted representative government, all in the name of a supposedly participatory democracy controlled by a popularly supported central government. This volume illustrates how an authoritarian, nondemocratic government has been established in Venezuela - a government lacking all the essential elements of a true democracy as defined by the 2001 Inter-American Democratic Charter.

History

BREWER-CARÏAS, Allan R.

Americas

Cambridge University Press

This book examines the process of dismantling the democratic institutions and protections in Venezuela under the Hugo Chávez regime. The actions of the Chávez government have influenced similar processes and undemocratic maneuverings in Ecuador, Bolivia, and Honduras. Since the election of Hugo Chávez as president of Venezuela in 1998, a sinister form of nationalistic authoritarianism has arisen at the expense of long-established democratic standards. During the past decade, the 1999 Venezuelan Constitution has been systematically attacked by all branches of the Chávez government, particularly by the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, which has legitimized the Chávez-ordered constitutional violations. The Chávez regime has purposely defrauded the Constitution and severely restricted representative government, all in the name of a supposedly participatory democracy controlled by a popularly supported central government. This volume illustrates how an authoritarian, nondemocratic government has been established in Venezuela - a government lacking all the essential elements of a true democracy as defined by the 2001 Inter-American Democratic Charter.

Together with the expansive process of human rights constitutional declarations, in addition to the writ of habeas corpus and of habeas data, Latin American constitutions created a specific judicial remedy for the protection of constitutional rights, known as the suit, action, recourse, or writ of amparo. After spreading throughout Latin America, it was incorporated in the American Convention of Human Rights. It is similar to the "injunctions" and the other equitable remedies of the United States legal system. This book examines, with a comparative constitutional law approach, the most recent trends in the constitutional and legal regulations in all Latin American countries regarding the amparo proceeding. It is an up-to-date abridged version of the course of lectures the author gave at the Columbia Law School analyzing the regulations of the seventeen amparo statutes in force in Latin America, as well as the regulation on the amparo guarantee established in Article 25 of the American Convention of Human Rights.

Constitutional Protection of Human Rights in Latin America: A Comparative Study of Amparo Proceedings

Constitutional Law

In all democratic states, constitutional courts, which are traditionally empowered to invalidate or to annul unconstitutional statutes, have the role of interpreting and applying the Constitution in order to preserve its supremacy and to ensure the prevalence of fundamental rights. In this sense they were traditionally considered "negative legislators," unable to substitute the legislators or to enact legislative provisions that could not be deducted from the Constitution. During the past decade the role of constitutional courts has dramatically changed as their role is no longer limited to declaring the unconstitutionality of statutes or annulling them. Today, constitutional courts condition their decisions with the presumption of constitutionality of statutes, opting to interpret them according to or in harmony with the Constitution in order to preserve them, instead of deciding their annulment or declaring them unconstitutional. More frequently, Constitutional Courts, instead of dealing with existing legislation, assume the role of assistants or auxiliaries to the legislator, creating provisions they deduct from the Constitution when controlling the absence of legislation or legislative omissions. In some cases they act as "positive legislators," issuing temporary or provisional rules to be applied pending the enactment of legislation. This book analyzes this new role of the constitutional courts, conditioned by the principles of progressiveness and of prevalence of human rights, particularly regarding the important rediscovery of the right to equality and non-discrimination.

Constitutional Courts as Positive Legislators: A Comparative Law Study

Rules & Procedures

In all democratic states, constitutional courts, which are traditionally empowered to invalidate or to annul unconstitutional statutes, have the role of interpreting and applying the Constitution in order to preserve its supremacy and to ensure the prevalence of fundamental rights. In this sense they were traditionally considered "negative legislators," unable to substitute the legislators or to enact legislative provisions that could not be deducted from the Constitution. During the past decade the role of constitutional courts has dramatically changed as their role is no longer limited to declaring the unconstitutionality of statutes or annulling them. Today, constitutional courts condition their decisions with the presumption of constitutionality of statutes, opting to interpret them according to or in harmony with the Constitution in order to preserve them, instead of deciding their annulment or declaring them unconstitutional. More frequently, Constitutional Courts, instead of dealing with existing legislation, assume the role of assistants or auxiliaries to the legislator, creating provisions they deduct from the Constitution when controlling the absence of legislation or legislative omissions. In some cases they act as "positive legislators," issuing temporary or provisional rules to be applied pending the enactment of legislation. This book analyzes this new role of the constitutional courts, conditioned by the principles of progressiveness and of prevalence of human rights, particularly regarding the important rediscovery of the right to equality and non-discrimination.

Together with the expansive process of human rights constitutional declarations, in addition to the writ of habeas corpus and of habeas data, Latin American constitutions created a specific judicial remedy for the protection of constitutional rights, known as the suit, action, recourse, or writ of amparo. After spreading throughout Latin America, it was incorporated in the American Convention of Human Rights. It is similar to the "injunctions" and the other equitable remedies of the United States legal system. This book examines, with a comparative constitutional law approach, the most recent trends in the constitutional and legal regulations in all Latin American countries regarding the amparo proceeding. It is an up-to-date abridged version of the course of lectures the author gave at the Columbia Law School analyzing the regulations of the seventeen amparo statutes in force in Latin America, as well as the regulation on the amparo guarantee established in Article 25 of the American Convention of Human Rights.

In this book, Professor Allan R. Brewer-Carías studies the mean for the constitutional protection of fundamental rights by the courts, referring in particular to the fundamental right that all persons have to be protected by the courts, and in particular to the writ of " amparo," or the "amparo" proceeding, as a special judicial mean for protection, similar to what has been called, the civil right " injunction" in the United States. Although it focus in the Venezuelan constitutional system, it is a study of the institution in comparative law.

Derecho de Amparo Y Acción de Amparo Constitucional (Spanish Edition)

FUNDACIÓN EDITORIAL JURIDICA VENEZOLANA

This book analyzes the defense of the rights and interest of the Venezuelan Interim Government established according to the February 2019 "Statute that Governs the Transition to Democracy to Restore the Enforcement of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela" issued by the National Assembly of Venezuela, before foreign courts. The book analyses the matter not only from the Venezuelan Constitutional and Administrative Law perspective, but also from the general principles of government recognition in International Law as well as in the United States and the United Kingdom Law.According to the decisions of the National Assembly, on January 23, 2019, several countries recognized the speaker of the National Assembly of Venezuela as the Interim President of the country, based on the constitutional interpretation adopted by the National Assembly according to which, due to the illegitimacy of the presidential election held on May 20, 2018, the speaker should assume the presidency of Venezuela according to Article 233 of the Constitution, to promote the restoration of the rule of law, according to Article 333 of the 1999 Constitution. Shortly after, the National Assembly approved a special Law to regulate the process of transition and the functions of the Interim President, the Transition Statute.Because at that time Venezuela was involved in complex litigations in the United States based on claims filed by the legacy creditors, the political recognition of the Interim President become a question of law. Considering the precedents about government recognition and the act of state doctrine, the United States Judiciary accepted the Interim President as the exclusive representative of Venezuela and considered the decisions adopted by the National Assembly and the Interim President as valid and binding ones. The United Kingdom Judiciary adopted a similar decision. Accordingly, between 2019 and 2020, foreign courts derived legal and practical consequences from the political statements of recognitions issued since January 2019.

The Defense of the Rights and Interest of the Venezuelan State by the Interim Government Before Foreign Courts. 2019-2020

Hernández G, José Ignacio

Foreign & International Law

This book of professor Allan R. Brewer-Carías, recollects all his writings of the past twenty years, in which he analyzes the endless process of demolition of the autonomy and independence of the Judiciary in Venezuela, which began in 1999 with the intervention of the Judicial Power by the National Constituent Assembly, substituting the magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice, and appointing the magistrates of the new Supreme Tribunal of Justice with candidates politically linked with the government and the official political party. The dismissing judges was made without any due process guaranties, which were substituted bi appointees in a temporary and provisional character, and consequently dependent of the Executive. Such intervention of the Judiciary has continued since 1999, progressively demolishing the autonomy and independence of the Judicial Power, which simple now a days simply does not exists, as has been evidenced in the Reports issued since 2001 by the Interamerican Commission of Human Rights, the International Commission of Jurists, the Human Rights Commissions of the United States, and the Secretary General of the Organization of Human Rights. The consequence has been the tragic erosion of democracy.

La Demolicion de la Autonomía E Independencia de Poder Judicial En Venezuela 1999-2021 (Spanish Edition)

Este libro editado por el profesor Allan R. Brewer-Carías está dedicado a analizar el contenido y los efectos de dos sentencias de la Corte Suprema de Justicia de Venezuela, dictadas el 19 de enero de 999, mediante las cuales se desencadenó el proceso constituyente de ese año, que se desarrolló al margen de lo prescrito en la Constitución entonces vigente (de 1961). El resultado de ello fue la "morte di una Costituzione," tal como le expresó el profesor Alessandro Pace de la Universidad La Sapienza de Roma, en un artículo publicado ese mismo año, que se publica en el libro "A manera de Introducción." El libro cuenta con un Prólogo del profesor Eduardo Jorge Prats ("Ulises, las Sirenas y los Muertos Constituyentes"); en las tres primeras partes se incluyen tres trabajos del profesor Brewer-carías sobre las sentenbcias y el proceso constitiuyente que se desarrolló; y en la cuarta parte se reproducen los diversos estudios dedicados a analizar las sentencias y sus efectos, que fuern publicados entre 1999 y 2021, por los profesores Juan Manuel Raffalli, Ramón Guillermo Aveledo, Víctor Hernández Mendible, Carlos Luis Carrillo Artíles, Ricardo Antela Garrido, Lolymar Hernández Camargo, Michael Núñez Torres y Rafael Estrada Michel, Jaime Grimaldo Lorent, Ricardo Combellas, Jesús María Casal H., Tulio A. Álvarez, Eduardo Piacenza, Carlos García Soto, Gustavo Grau Fortoul, José Ignacio Hernández y Miguel J. Mónaco. El libro incluye "A manera de Epílogo" el conocido trabajo del profesor Georges Liet-Veaux escrito en 1943 sobre "La fraude à la Constitution," al estudiar las revoluciones de Italia, Alemania y Francia cuando se establecieron los regímenes fascistas y nacional-socialista antes de la segunda guerra mundial.

LA MUERTE DE UNA CONSTITUCIÓN. El proceso constituyente de 1999 desencadenado por dos sentencias de la Corte Suprema (Spanish Edition)

Administrative Law

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Books by BREWER-CARÏAS, Allan R.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by BREWER-CARÏAS, Allan R.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Dismantling Democracy in Venezuela: The Chávez Authoritarian Experiment

Dismantling Democracy in Venezuela: The Chávez Authoritarian Experiment

Constitutional Protection of Human Rights in Latin America: A Comparative Study of Amparo Proceedings

Constitutional Courts as Positive Legislators: A Comparative Law Study

Constitutional Courts as Positive Legislators: A Comparative Law Study

Constitutional Protection of Human Rights in Latin America: A Comparative Study of Amparo Proceedings

Derecho de Amparo Y Acción de Amparo Constitucional (Spanish Edition)

The Defense of the Rights and Interest of the Venezuelan State by the Interim Government Before Foreign Courts. 2019-2020

La Demolicion de la Autonomía E Independencia de Poder Judicial En Venezuela 1999-2021 (Spanish Edition)

LA MUERTE DE UNA CONSTITUCIÓN. El proceso constituyente de 1999 desencadenado por dos sentencias de la Corte Suprema (Spanish Edition)