Chile used to be known as the Switzerland of South America because of its relative wealth and stability. But last month, after a massive wave of social protests and violence, the country began a process to write a new Constitution, replacing that produced by General Augusto Pinochet in 1980.  This field report provides an update, and speculates on implications for other countries trying to cope with inequality and inclusion.

Tom Ginsburg focuses on comparative and international law from an interdisciplinary perspective. He holds BA, JD, and PhD degrees from the University of California at Berkeley. His latest book, How to Save a Constitutional Democracy, was written with Aziz Z. Huq, and his earlier books include Judicial Review in New Democracies (2003), which won the C. Herman Pritchett Award from the American Political Science Association; The Endurance of National Constitutions (2009), which also won a best book prize from APSA; and Judicial Reputation (2015). He currently co-directs the Comparative Constitutions Project, an effort funded by the National Science Foundation to gather and analyze the constitutions of all independent nation-states since 1789. Before entering law teaching, he served as a legal adviser at the Iran-US Claims Tribunal, The Hague, Netherlands, and he continues to work with numerous international development agencies and foreign governments on legal and constitutional reform. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.