‘His advantage over me is that this Constitution –whether I like it or not—is ruling.’ The Role of the Chilean Constitutional Court in times of Change

Abstract

This essay justifies the lack of a judicial doctrine restricting constitutional reform with substantive limits –as opposed to procedural limits—in Chile. The author examines the recent Chilean constitutional history and the few relevant Constitutional Court decisions, to argue that lacking such a judicial doctrine was desirable because it allowed constitutional amenders to gradually and incrementally democratize the Chilean Constitution. Nevertheless, there may be good reasons to restricting future constitutional reforms if those reforms aim to reverse the democratic achievements of the post-authoritarian era.