Chairs:

• Bradley Virgill Slade bvslade@sun.ac.za
• Andrés Mauricio Gutiérrez Beltrán andresm.gutierrez@uexternado.edu.co

Since the concept of Transformative Constitutionalism was first proposed by Karl Klare in the 1990s, it has gained prominence in legal discourse in several jurisdictions. Conceived in and for the South African context at a time when the country was commencing its journey in constitutionalism after the end of formal apartheid, it has spread to other parts of the world. Transformative Constitutionalism is often used to explain the constitutional practice of some countries in the Global South, which are marked by poverty and exclusion. In terms of this concept, constitutions serve as roadmaps for fundamentally transforming both state institutions and society to achieve profound social renewal. Although each country faces particular challenges, and therefore each takes advantage of the different tools offered by Transformative Constitutionalism in a particular way, they all share the purpose of combating extreme poverty and promoting material equality. More specifically, they seek to drastically modify the living conditions of millions of people who have not found in classical constitutionalism a path to the full enjoyment of their fundamental rights.

The countries that are part of this trend share a set of characteristics, which were pointed out by Klare: i) they proclaim social rights and embrace a substantive conception of equality; ii) they impose affirmative obligations on the State to secure equality; iii) they recognize the horizontal effectiveness of fundamental rights; iv) they promote a participatory conception of democracy; v) they embrace the principle of multiculturalism; and vi) they possess a deep historical awareness of the transformative character of constitutional texts. Finally, constitutional courts are considered to be important protagonists in pushing the transformative agenda forward.