Constitutional Protection of Human Rights in Latin America is an overview of the characteristics taken on in recent years by the leading resource for the constitutional protection of human rights in Latin America, the amparo, in which Allan Brewer-Carías maps out the mechanisms for rights protection from the perspective of comparative constitutional law. This approach enables him to describe the differences and similarities between various Latin American countries, as well as between Latin America, Europe and the United States. Enhanced by the author's erudition and specialised knowledge of the subject, this comparative approach enables him to identify some regional peculiarities, the most fundamental of which is the construct of amparo, an exceptional resource for rights' protection that has been adopted, in varying forms, by all the countries of the region. It is posited that this differentiates Latin America from the United States, and from many European countries, in which such protection is achieved by means of rights of ordinary and extraordinary appeal that cover a wide array of rights, including human rights. This regional trait, the result of a history of human rights violations, is explained by the author as a reaction against this circumstance.

The book moves from the general to the particular and offers a wealth of information on a range of issues. It begins by setting out the general characteristics of the systems of human rights protection enshrined in the constitutions and in international human rights law, as well as the relationships between these, before moving on to the distinctive features of amparo in different countries. This sequence reveals the multiplicity of changes in rights protection systems that have occurred in different Latin American countries over the last three decades.

The book presents the results of these changes as positive, acknowledging differences between one country and another: new rights have been incorporated into law, international law aspects of human rights law have been added to the constitutional texts, the concept of amparo has been integrated into constitutional texts, and legislation on the issue has been enacted. The scope of judicial power has been broadened to include rights protection, mechanisms for constitutional pro-rights interpretation have been established, the rights protected under amparo have been extended, as has jurisdiction over those responsible for the violations that lead to amparo, and the range of individuals able to claim amparo has also broadened. Throughout this tour d'horizon the impression prevails that over recent decades a significant component of the legal changes in the region has been associated with the protection of rights – although, and this needs to be stressed, the author is aware that if the process of change in the law is not accompanied by corresponding changes in political conditions, the impact of the former will be limited at best or nil at worst.

Initially the work concentrates on an analysis of the constitutional texts and international human rights law. There is an identifiably broader catalogue of human rights in the constitutional texts, both directly and/or by virtue of the incorporation of rights-related treaties and declarations. Parallel to this trend is the tendency to constitutionalise rights protection, or to achieve similar ends through the use of the constitutional text as a framework for protection without the need for legal strictures – a tendency that refashions the programmatic nature of the declarations of constitutional rights and turns them into pragmatic instruments. By this token, it is suggested that the recognition of amparo, habeas corpus and habeas data (less widespread in the region) in the constitutional texts as exceptional guarantees of the protection of human rights was given particular impetus by the passing of the American Convention on Human Rights of 1969 (a measure that was widely ratified by the countries of the region).

Next the book analyses the characteristics of amparo (habeas corpus and habeas data) in Latin American countries (along with the Philippines and some European countries that have adopted a similar institution). Amparo is not only a resource for the protection of human rights but also a mechanism of jurisdictional constitutionality that can have different characteristics according to the type of constitutionality control adopted in each country.

The text, which can be hard to follow due to the wealth of information deployed, is eloquent in its description of juridical changes that have modified amparo. Although a multitude of situations relating to the mechanism can be identified, it suggests a movement that extends from the exclusive availability of the resource for individuals and/or legal representatives directly affected by violations, the identification of the state as the sole culprit responsible for these violations, and individual rights as a source of protection. This leads to the opening of the use of the resource to groups and/or collectives in cases of diffuse rights violations, who are entitled to submit cases on their own behalf or on behalf of third parties (such as public or social bodies who represent them) against state actors or private individuals, as well as the protection of social and cultural rights.

Finally, above and beyond the indisputable value of the work, three premises on which it is founded ought to be set out, as in the opinion of this reviewer these will require further development in future studies of this kind or in future editions of this study. The first tenet is linked to the insight that Latin America has a highly developed system of rights protection, although this is accompanied by high violation levels. The relationship put forward, although one that is perhaps not fully developed, is that the proliferation of special rights protection mechanisms in Latin America is a response to the high levels of human rights violations that characterise the region; this argument leaves to one side such different motives as political legitimation or international pressure, however. The second assumption is that the violation of human rights is the preserve of authoritarian regimes, with democracies being exempt from that sort of thing, when some relevant statistics give little cause for optimism regarding various democracies in the region. Finally, the third posit relates to judicial independence guaranteeing the effectiveness of these protection mechanisms. Here the supposition is that the greater the degree of judicial independence, the greater the respect for human rights; however, the analyses of the relationship between courts and rights seem to indicate that independence is a necessary but insufficient condition for the guaranteeing of the latter, and that other factors, such as ideological cultures within the profession, can influence the manner in which judicial power in general and judges in particular interpret the subject of rights.

Aside from these observations aimed at clarifying some implicit assumptions or hypotheses that reveal an interpretation that sees the solution for human rights problems as being dependent on the nature of the political regime and judicial power, this study is a unique reference work, broadly recommended to those interested in Latin America from a legal as well as a social science perspective.