The place of the Civil Code in dialogue with the Constitution

Speakers: DCL candidates Jimena Andino Dorato, Nelcy López Cuellar and Graciela Jasa-Silveira.

Part of the "Civil Law and its Codes: a Journey Across the Americas" Workshops, which are presented by the Quebec Research Centre of Private and Comparative Law, and the Grupo Hispano de la Facultad de Derecho.

A request will be made for the accreditation of this training activity by the Barreau du Québec as Mandatory Continuing Legal Education.

Abstract

Taking Kelsen’s well-known pyramid image – still very present in Latin America’s vision of Law – as a starting point, the presentation aims to challenge the notion of hierarchical ordering of laws within these civil law traditions.

The three panelists will focus on the "dialogue" between the Constitution and constitutionally entrenched international treaties and private law. This metaphorical image will allow to portray the layers in Kelsen’s pyramid as permeable with an enriching “allez-retour”, as a site of dialogue with a combination of respect and constant contestation. To illustrate this purpose, examples will be drawn from Colombia, Argentina and Mexico.