Abstract:
This article interprets the regulatory state in the south as the result of a dialectic process
between global governance institutions, transnational knowledge and domestic politics, all
of which influence, transform and inspire each other. Throughthe case of water supply
regulation in Colombia, it argues that global governance is not a top-down process, but is
rather hinged upon domestic institutions, that adapt global regulatory practices for domestic
purposes. In Colombia, such a process results in an interesting constitutional variant of the
regulatory state, in which neo-constitutionalism becomes a counterbalance to the
unchecked expansion of neo-liberal regulatory practices. As a result, the domestic judiciary
is empowered, and becomes a central variable to understand both the specific traits of this
southern regulatory state, and its interaction with global centers of power.
