From Strategies To Constitutions: Identity, Multiculturalism And Interculturalism As Legal Values. A Comparison Between Europe And The Andean Countries

The legal debate of the last decades has shown a great interest in the phenomenon of culture. Courts and Parliaments have to deal constantly with concepts like identity, multiculturalism and interculturalism which are sociological as well as legal issues. This paper provides for an overview of the legal definition of “identity” in different international and national contexts. It analyses also the concepts of multiculturalism and interculturalism, from a legal perspective. To this aim, it provides an overview of the European and Andean contexts, to understand why the legal debate is referring more and more to the concept of interculturalism, instead of multiculturalism. This paper aims at understanding if this is to be considered as an evolution of the relation between law and cultural pluralism.