Renaldy J. Gutierrez’s Keynote Speaker remarks at Duquesne University Symposium on the "Separation of Power in the Americas... And Beyond" published in Duquesne Law Review.
The most recent volume of Duquesne University Law Review (Volume 47. Number 4, Fall 2009) carries an article written by Renaldy J. Gutierrez, entitled “Democracy and the Rule of Law: Myth or Reality”, which was delivered as his remarks at the Symposium on the “Separation of Powers in the Americas… And Beyond” held at Duquesne University School of Law, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in November 2008.
Based on the notions of democracy and the rule of law in his article Mr. Gutierrez explores a political phenomenon that is taking hold in certain countries, which he calls “formal democracy”. This new phenomenon is exemplified in Mr. Gutierrez article with an in-depth analysis of the constitutional crises in Nicaragua of 2005.
In Mr. Gutierrez article formal democracy exists where the rule of law is manipulated to subvert democracy or where the latter is used to destroy the rule of law. But, as Mr. Gutierrez contends in this article, “that one (democracy and rule of law) cannot exist, at least for long, without the other”.
