Resumo

FIX-ZAMUDIO, Héctor. Los estados de excepción y la defensa de la Constitución. Bol. Mex. Der. Comp. [online]. 2004, vol.37, n.111, pp. 801-860. ISSN 0041-8633.

States of emergency have had a gradual historical evolution since the times of the Roman Republic up to our days. Modern democracies have established constitutional rules in order to define when and how governments could declare and apply norms of emergency in cases of serious external and internal conflicts, with the intervention and under the supervision of the legislative power. A step forward in this evolution took place when courts had the power, first through case-law and later by means of constitutional and legal norms, to review the legality and constitutionality of the declaration and application of the states of emergency. In this essay, the author analyzes the evolution that this kind of rules have had in Latin America, both from the national and the International perspectives. Among his conclusions, the author explains that the fight against terrorism has put in danger the balance between the need of emergency legislation and the protection of human rights.

Palavras-chave : state of emergency; human rights; legislative control; judicial control.