The rhetorical straitjacket of constitutional amendment rules in Ecuador

The article challenges the way the history and practice of the constitutional amendment rules in the Ecuadorian Constitution of 2008 has been understood by scholars. The conventional explanation posits that imposing strict limits to the constitutional reform procedure – such as referring to the fundamental structure of the State or grant ex-ante review power to the Constitutional Court – could posit a paradigmatic change in the Constitution’s stability. However, I argue that none of this is not a significant restriction in practice. The Ecuadorian Constitutional Court’s jurisprudence on constitutional reform does not seem to be coherent, and the corresponding constitutional rules remain as mere rhetorical norms until today.