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SELA

SELA 2026
June 12 – 14, 2026
Panama City

Session 1:        Democracy and Racism

Wallace Corbo: Black Constitutionalism in Brazil 
Esteban Restrepo: The Racial Order of Black Republicanism 
Adilson Moreira: Racial Justice: A Theory

Commentator: Agustina Ramón Michel

Session 2:    When National Judges Face Transnational Questions

Daniela Salazar: Rethinking International Humanitarian Law or Imagining a 
New One?
Natalia Angel-Cabo: Local Judges & Global Dilemmas: Reflections on 
Recent Decisions of the Colombian Constitutional Court 
Sebastián Guidi & Nahuel Maisley: Human Rights for our Age of 
Interdependence

Commentator: Laura Betancur

Session 3:        Disciplining the Diffusion of Legal Norms

Pablo Rueda-Saiz: From Geneva to the Grassroots: Normative Divergence & 
Implementation of ILO 169 in Latin America 
Alvin Padilla: Resisting Federal Rights
Maria-Paula Bucci: The Construction of Structuring Systems for Public 
Policies in Brazil

Commentator: Lisa Iglesias

Session 4:        Worthy Ends, Dubious Means

Laura Porras: Authoritarian Populism and the Poor
Francisca Pou: Mexican Exceptionalism: Paritarian and Multicultural 
Autocracy?
Roberto Gargarella: The Noble Dream of Constitutionalism

Commentator: Carolina Olarte

Session 5:       Democracy and Disagreement

Marcelo Alegre: A Democratic Theory of Law 
Eliezer Silva: Legal Interpretation and the Conservative and Progressive 
Ambivalence of Law
Julio Antonio and Michel Fernández: Draft Constitution for a Democratic 
Cuba

Commentator: Alberto Puppo

Session 6:     Law and Innovation

Madeleine Plasencia: Human Values Beyond All Price: Actor-Networks in 
the Law of Warnings
Eduardo Bertoni: Human Rights & Technology: The Case for Freedom of 
Expression
Esteban Pereira: The Constitutionalization of Private Law

 

For inquiries

Please write to bradley.hayes@yale.edu.