Courts in Latin America

Courts in Latin America
Author: Gretchen Helmke
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2011-01-17
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1139497162

To what extent do courts in Latin America protect individual rights and limit governments? This volume answers these fundamental questions by bringing together today's leading scholars of judicial politics. Drawing on examples from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica and Bolivia, the authors demonstrate that there is widespread variation in the performance of Latin America's constitutional courts. In accounting for this variation, the contributors push forward ongoing debates about what motivates judges; whether institutions, partisan politics and public support shape inter-branch relations; and the importance of judicial attitudes and legal culture. The authors deploy a range of methods, including qualitative case studies, paired country comparisons, statistical analysis and game theory.

The DNA of Constitutional Justice in Latin America

The DNA of Constitutional Justice in Latin America
Author: Daniel M. Brinks
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2018-04-19
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1107178363

Analyzes the political roots of the systems of constitutional justice in Latin America, tracing their development over the last 40 years.

The Latin American Casebook

The Latin American Casebook
Author: Juan F. Gonzalez-Bertomeu
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2016-04-20
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1317026209

Traditionally relegated because of political pressure and public expectations, courts in Latin America are increasingly asserting a stronger role in public and political discussions. This casebook takes account of this phenomenon, by offering a rigorous and up-to-date discussion of constitutional adjudication in Latin America in recent decades. Bringing to the forefront the development of constitutional law by Latin American courts in various subject matters, the volume aims to highlight a host of creative arguments and solutions that judges in the region have offered. The authors review and discuss innovative case law in light of the countries’ social, political and legal context. Each chapter is devoted to a discussion of a particular area of judicial review, from freedom of expression to social and economic rights, from the internalization of human rights law to judicial checks on the economy, from gender and reproductive rights to transitional justice. The book thus provides a very useful tool to scholars, students and litigants alike.

Constitutional Protection of Human Rights in Latin America

Constitutional Protection of Human Rights in Latin America
Author: Allan R. Brewer-Carías
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 450
Release: 2009
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0521492025

This book examines the most recent trends in the constitutional and legal regulations in all Latin American countries regarding the amparo proceeding. It analyzes the regulations of the seventeen amparo statutes in force in Latin America, as well as the regulation on the amparo guarantee established in Article 25 of the American Convention of Human Rights.

Constitutional Courts as Mediators

Constitutional Courts as Mediators
Author: Julio Ríos-Figueroa
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 255
Release: 2016-04-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107079780

The book proposes an informational theory of constitutional review highlighting the mediator role of constitutional courts in democratic conflict solving.

International Courts in Latin America and the Caribbean

International Courts in Latin America and the Caribbean
Author: Salvatore Caserta
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2020-10-29
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0198867999

This book explores the foundations and evolution of the four Latin American and Caribbean regional economic courts. It argues that local socio-political factors are often the decisive factor in influencing the direction of these Courts, rather than the formally delegated functions they were assigned when established.

The Judicialization of Politics in Latin America

The Judicialization of Politics in Latin America
Author: Rachel Sieder
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2016-04-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1137108878

During the last two decades the judiciary has come to play an increasingly important political role in Latin America. Constitutional courts and supreme courts are more active in counterbalancing executive and legislative power than ever before. At the same time, the lack of effective citizenship rights has prompted ordinary people to press their claims and secure their rights through the courts. This collection of essays analyzes the diverse manifestations of the judicialization of politics in contemporary Latin America, assessing their positive and negative consequences for state-society relations, the rule of law, and democratic governance in the region. With individual chapters exploring Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela, it advances a comparative framework for thinking about the nature of the judicialization of politics within contemporary Latin American democracies.

The Role of Courts in Transitional Justice

The Role of Courts in Transitional Justice
Author: Jessica Almqvist
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 359
Release: 2013-06-17
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1136579257

Bringing together a group of outstanding judges, scholars and experts with first-hand experience in the field of transitional justice in Latin America and Spain, this book offers an insider’s perspective on the enhanced role of courts in prosecuting serious human rights violations and grave crimes, such as genocide and war crimes, committed in the context of a prior repressive regime or current conflict. The book also draws attention to the ways in which regional and international courts have come to contribute to the initiation of national judicial processes. All the contributions evince that the duty to investigate and prosecute grave crimes can no longer simply be brushed to the side in societies undergoing transitions. The Role of Courts in Transitional Justice is essential reading for practitioners, policy-makers and scholars engaged in the transitional justice processes or interested in judicial and legal perspectives on the role of courts, obstacles faced, and how they may be overcome. It is unique in its ambition to offer a comprehensive and systematic account of the Latin American and Spanish experience and in bringing the insights of renowned judges and experts in the field to the forefront of the discussion.

Transformative Constitutionalism in Latin America

Transformative Constitutionalism in Latin America
Author: Armin von Bogdandy
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 465
Release: 2017-06-16
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0192515462

This ground-breaking collection of essays outlines and explains the unique development of Latin American jurisprudence. It introduces the idea of the Ius Constitutionale Commune en América Latina (ICCAL), an original Latin American path of transformative constitutionalism, to an Anglophone audience for the first time. It charts the key developments that have transformed the region and assesses the success of the constitutional projects that followed a period of authoritarian regimes in Latin America. Coined by scholars who have been documenting, conceptualizing, and comparing the development of Latin American public law for more than a decade, the term ICCAL encompasses themes that cross national borders and legal fields, taking in constitutional law, administrative law, general public international law, regional integration law, human rights, and investment law. Not only does this volume map the legal landscape, it also suggests measures to improve society via due legal process and a rights-based, supranational and regionally rooted constitutionalism. The editors contend that with the strengthening of democracy, the rule of law, and human rights, common problems such as the exclusion of wide sectors of the population from having a say in government, as well as corruption, hyper-presidentialism, and the weak normativity of the law can be combatted more effectively in future.