Abstract: This paper introduces the concept of “constitutional embedding,” or the process by which particular visions of constitutional law come to take root both socially and legally, and demonstrates the key role of legal mobilization in propelling constitutional embedding. When constitutional rights talk has entered the vernacular and does so with respect to specific rights and legal tools that can be used to claim those rights, a constitution has become socially embedded. Legal embedding has occurred when judges establish, alter, and – especially – expand precedent related to a specific understanding of the purpose of constitutional law. Legal mobilization serves as a mechanism of constitutional embedding, as the iterative process of claims-making in the formal legal sphere shapes how both everyday citizens and legal actors understand what the law is and does – or what the law ought to be and do. To illustrate the relationship between legal mobilization and constitutional embedding, I draw on one year of fieldwork in Colombia, including 90 elite interviews (with judges, practicing lawyers, law professors, activists at NGOs that engage in strategic litigation, and officials at government agencies tasked with overseeing rights claims) and 93 interviews with rights claimants.
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