“El antiguo constitucionalismo en la historia hispanoamericana del siglo XIX

Abstract

The predominant criteria that Hispanic-American constitutionalism begins with early written constitutional texts has obscured the existence of ancient constitutional guidelines governing Hispanic-American societies before and after their independences. The weight of the old scheme of the predominance of an anarchic caudillismo and the fact that the term constitution is strongly associated with the written texts we know today, seems to difficult the recognition of the existence of unwritten constitutions – which, usually consisted in a collection of customary guidelines and written texts. The truth is that Hispanic-American societies, such as Anglo-American and European societies, possessed at that time constitutional norms generally invoked with the statements "ancient constitution" or “fundamental laws.”

Keywords

• constitutionalism
• caudillismo
• Spanish-America
• ancient constitution
• fundamental law