A new Constitution: analyzing the proposal ten days before the plebiscite / Una nueva Constitución: analizando la propuesta a 10 días del plebiscito

Date: 

Thursday, December 7, 2023, 8:30am to 10:00am


8:30 AM EST /  10:30 AM Chile To register, click here

This webinar is part of the Academic Forum for the New Constitution in Chile, which has accumulated 7767 views on YouTube, 3326 registrations, and 1789 attendees. The activity will be held in English and Spanish with simultaneous translation.

 

Welcoming remarks: Steven Levitsky, Director, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies and Professor of Government, Harvard University.
Panelists: Lorena Gallardo, Renovación Nacional; Member of the Constitutional Council; Carlos Frontaura, Republican; Professor, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and Member of the Expert Commission; Domingo Lovera, Revolución Democrática; Professor, Universidad Diego Portales and Member of the Expert Commission; María Pardo, Convergencia Social; Professor, Universidad Católica del Norte and Member of the Constitutional Council. Moderated by: Sebastián Soto, Evópoli; Professor, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; Vicepresident Expert Commission and DRCLAS visiting scholar.

 

On November 7, the Constitutional Council submitted the constitutional proposal ( English version Translated for the Comparative Constitutions Project by Matthew Martin and Guillermo Perezto the President of Chile, Gabriel Boric. The Council approved the document after eight months of work. A total of 24 commissioners of the Expert Commission participated in the first stage of the process and 50 members of the Constitutional Council participated in the second stage. On December 17th, Chilean citizens must vote in a plebiscite to approve or reject the text, which consists of 17 chapters, 216 articles, and 62 transitory regulations.


Profiles


Steven Levitsky, Director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University. As a Professor of Latin American Studies and of Government, his research focuses on democratization, authoritarianism, political parties, and weak and informal institutions. He is the author (with Daniel Ziblatt) of How Democracies Die (Crown, 2018), a New York Times Best-Seller that has been published in 25 languages. He has written or edited 11 other books and his most recent contribution, with Daniel Ziblatt, is Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point (2023). Levitsky received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.


Sebastián Soto. Vicepresident of the Expert Commission and member of the Subcommission of Political System, Constitutional Reform, and State Form. Professor of the Law Faculty at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. He graduated as a lawyer from the same university. He holds a master’s in law from the University of Columbia and a Ph.D. from Universidad de Chile. He was a Visiting Scholar at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University.


Carlos Frontaura. Member of the Subcommission of Principles, and Civil and Political Rights of the Expert Commission. He is a lawyer from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, the Director of the Department of Law Fundaments, and a Professor at the Law Faculty. He was a researcher and legal advisor at the Fundación Jaime Guzmán, and he worked in the Ministry of Justice. He advised the Instituto Nacional de Derechos Humanos (2016-2020).


Lorena Gallardo. Member of the Constitutional Council by popular election. Lawyer. Member of the Jurisdictional Function and Autonomous Bodies Commission. She has developed her professional career in the areas of family law, civil law, and immigration law.


Domingo Lovera. Member of the Subcommission of Jurisdictional Function and Autonomous Bodies in the Expert Commission. He has developed his professional career as a lecturer and researcher at the Universidad Diego Portales, where he co-directs the Program of Public Law. He holds a master’s in law (LL.M.) from Columbia University (United States) and a Ph.D. in Law from York University (Canada).


María Pardo. Popularly elected member of the Constitutional Council. She was a member of the Subcommission of Jurisdictional Function and Autonomous Bodies in the Expert Commission. She graduated as a lawyer from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso and she holds a Ph.D. in Law from the same university. She has taught at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Universidad de Playa Ancha, and Universidad Católica del Norte.

In collaboration with / En colaboración con:

Facultad de Gobierno, Universidad de Chile
Instituto Milenio Fundamentos de los Datos
Laboratorio Constitucional, Universidad Diego Portales
Facultad de Derecho, Pontificia Universidad Católica
Instituto de Ciencia Política, Facultad de Historia, Geografía y Ciencia Política, Pontificia Universidad Católica
Harvard Association of Chilean Students
Escuela de Gobierno, Pontificia Universidad Católica