Had one been pressed, in the mid-1980s, to characterize Latin American approaches to constitutional law and international law, the terms "sleepy" and "sovereigntist" might have come to mind: "sleepy" because judicial review was rare; and "sovereigntist" because ever since declaring independence in a world of colonial powers, Latin American states had asserted a robust version of sovereignty (enshrined, for example, in the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States of 1933) and, accordingly, a dualist relation between domestic and international law.
