Turning Legal Pluralism into State-Sanctioned Law: Assessing the Implications of the New Constitutions and Laws in Bolivia and Ecuador

Over the past two decades, many Latin American states have sought to transform their relationship with indigenous peoples ¹ through constitutional reform. This has enabled states to acknowledge the cultural diversity of their citizenry and to grant collective rights to indigenous peoples, including the right to practice their own law (Van Cott 2000b). This politics of recognition has thereby challenged the core concept that state-building in Latin America traditionally had aimed at the establishment of a homogeneous legal order covering all citizens within a state territory.