The Limits of Judicialization

From Progress to Backlash in Latin America

Sandra Botero, Daniel M. Brinks, Ezequiel A. Gonzalez-Ocantos

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9781009098342
• eBook ISBN:
  9781009103572
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: American Government
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Latin America was one of the earliest and most enthusiastic adopters of what has come to be known as the judicialization of politics - the use of law and legal institutions as tools of social contestation to curb the abuse of power in government, resolve policy disputes, and enforce and expand civil, political, and socio-economic rights. Almost forty years into this experiment, The Limits of Judicialization brings together a cross-disciplinary group of scholars to assess the role that law and courts play in Latin American politics. Featuring studies of hot-button topics including abortion, state violence, judicial corruption, and corruption prosecutions, this volume argues that the institutional and cultural changes that empowered courts, what the editors call the 'judicialization superstructure,' often fall short of the promise of greater accountability and rights protection. Illustrative and expansive, this volume offers a truly interdisciplinary analysis of the limits of judicialized politics.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• List of Contributors
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Working in New Political Spaces: The Checkered History of Latin American Judicialization
• 2 Critical Disconnects: Progressive Jurisprudence and Tenacious Impunity in Mexico
• 3 When Winning in the Courts Is Not Enough: Abortion and the Limits of Legal Mobilization without Grassroots Involvement in Peru
• 4 Forms of Countermovement and Counter-Reform in Latin America: Judicial Backlash or Resources and Political and Legal Opportunities?
• 5 Backlash against State Strengthening Reforms: The Rise and Fall of the CICIG in Guatemala
• 6 Backlash against Corporate Accountability for Grave Human Rights Violations in Colombia
• 7 Courting Judicial Legitimacy: An Experimental Study of the Colombian Constitutional Court
• 8 Family Ties and Nepotism in the Mexican Federal Judiciary
• 9 Judicial Corruption: The Constitutional Court of Ecuador in Comparative Perspective
• 10 Kickbacks, Crackdown, and Backlash: Legal Accountability in the Lava Jato Investigation
• 11 Turning Corruption Trials into Political Tools in the Name of Transparency: The Lava Jato Case
• 12 Fighting Corruption, Dismantling Democracy: Antagonism, Communication, and the Political Use of Lava Jato in Brazil
• 13 Prosecutorial Agency, Backlash and Resistance in the Peruvian Chapter of Lava Jato
• Index