Carla Huerta

Carla Huerta is a full-time senior researcher at the Legal Research Institute (IIJ) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She holds a Law degree from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) and a PhD in Law from the Autonomous University of Madrid. She conducted postdoctoral research in Germany on normative conflicts. The author of several books and peer-reviewed articles, her work explores legal reasoning, the rule of law, and, more recently, the intersections between law and culture, reflecting an interdisciplinary approach to contemporary legal challenges.

The project

Title: Constitutional Culture: A Comparative Analysis of the Concept of Constitution and the Control of the Constitutional Amendment Process.

"The research examines, from a legal perspective, how constitutions are anchored in social consciousness and everyday practices, while analysing the challenges involved in maintaining a normative constitutional culture. France and Mexico provide particularly rich case studies, as both have experienced multiple constitutional transitions yet developed distinct approaches. The project focuses on the concept of the Constitution and the review of constitutionality in the process of constitutional revision, contrasting Mexico’s frequent amendments with France’s more measured approach and highlighting different conceptions of constitutional stability."

Hosting institution: Sciences Po

Selective Bibliography

• La lógica jurídica. Función y alcance de la lógica en el derecho (Legal Logic. Function and Scope of Logic in Law), IIJ-UNAM, México, 2024.
• Pierluigi Chiassoni and Carla Huerta, “Antinomies and Gaps”, in Jurisprudence in the Mirror, Burazin, Himma and Pino (eds.), Oxford University Press, 2024, pp. 287-320.
• “On the Function of Competence Norms in a Legal System”, in Legal Power and Legal Competence. Meaning, Normativity, Officials and Theories, Spaak and Villa Rosas (eds.), Springer, 2023. pp.111-130.
• “An explanatory model of constitutional transitions from a Legal Perspective, Mexican Law Review, Volume XIV, Number 2, January-June 2022, pp. 3-20.
• “El control de la constitucionalidad de la ley en México” (The control of the constitutionality of law in Mexico), Cuestiones Constitucionales. Revista Mexicana de Derecho Constitucional, Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas, UNAM, México, n° 47, julio-dic., 2022, IIJ-UNAM, pp. 127- 156.
• Teoría del Derecho. Cuestiones Relevantes (Legal Theory. Some Relevant Questions), Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas, UNAM, Mexico, 2009