La rielezione del Capo dello Stato in America Latina: quando la giustizia costituzionale rafforza la Presidenza

The re-election of the Head of State in Latin America: when constitutional justice empowers the Presidency – In this paper, we aim to analyse the cases of Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Bolivia, attempting to offer a systematisation of the ways in which these courts are composed and the decisions they have made on the admissibility of presidential re-election. The issue of the re-election of presidents is very divisive in doctrine and of fundamental importance for Latin American legal systems because it is closely related to their democratic functioning. In fact, although the election of members of the Constitutional Courts by the legislative body (and with qualified majorities) or by the electoral body represent means to prevent their nature from being exclusively political, the comparative landscape shows that this is not always the case. Additionally, in Latin America, the nature of constitutional courts depends not only on the methods of selecting their members, but also, and significantly, on the characteristics of the presidential form of government, characterised by the centrality of the president.