Under the terms of a new agreement between the University of Notre Dame and the Constitutional Court of Ecuador, Professor Paolo Carozza, Director of the Center for Civil and Human Rights (CCHR), and Professor Amy Barrett will conduct an intensive week-long seminar with Ecuadorian justices in Quito later this month.

With the enactment of a new national constitution in 2008, Ecuador’s Constitutional Court has adopted some aspects of a common law model. Professors Carozza and Barrett have been asked to assist the Court by providing a foundation in both the procedural and theoretical aspects of precedent-based law. The seminar will touch upon a broad range of issues, from the organization of the court’s docket and drafting of judgments to theories of constitutional interpretation and the handling of precedents. In addition, Professor Carozza will offer a comparative analysis of other foreign courts, examining the rationale and procedures for citing these courts in judgments.

Of particular value to the Ecuador court, the seminar will also examine the ways that other jurisdictions handle freedom of expression cases.

This seminar, the first stage of an anticipated long-term relationship between NDLS and the Ecuadoran court, is co-sponsored by the Program on Constitutional Structure and the Center for Civil and Human Rights. It will be held at CIESPAL, The Center for Advanced Studies in Communication for Latin America.