  Chern-Simons gravities are theories with a lagrangian given by a Chern-Simons
form constructed from a space-time gauge group. In previous investigations we
showed that, for some special field configurations that are solutions of the
field equations, the extension from Chern-Simons to Transgression forms as
lagrangians, motivated by gauge invariance, automatically yields the boundary
terms required to regularize the theory, giving finite conserved charges and
black hole thermodynamics. Further work by other researchers showed that one of
the action functionals considered in the above mentioned work yields a well
defined action principle in the metric (zero torsion) case and for
asymptotically Anti de Sitter (AdS) space-times. In the present work we
consider several action functionals for Chern-Simons AdS gravity constructed
from Transgression forms, and show the action principles to be well defined and
the Noether charges and Euclidean action to be finite for field configurations
satisfying only that the gauge field curvature (field strength) for the AdS
gauge group is asymptotically finite. For that purpose we consider an
asymptotic expansion of the vielbein and spin connection that may be regarded
as a perturbation of an AdS space-time, but allowing a non zero torsion. Our
results are of potential interest for Lovelock gravity theories, as it has been
shown that the boundary terms dictated by the transgressions for Chern-Simons
gravities are also suitable to regularize Lovelock theories.
