Javier Couso

Consolidación democrática y Poder Judicial: los riesgos de la judicialización de la política

Over the last decade or so, the notion of the “judicialization of politics” has become part and parcel of the language of political science. The term refers to the increased relevance of the courts in the political domain. In this article, the author assesses the role of judicialization in support of processes of democratic consolidation, in order to evaluate if the hopes placed on it are well founded. After describing the articulation of the expert discourse which enacted judicial activism as a core element of the rcombatir ule of law, and after analysing the preconditions and risks of it in new democracies, the article argues that the premature

Latin-American Legal Systems

Abstract ‘Latin-American legal systems’ is a label that groups together a diverse set of 20 countries that share a common historical background, geographical proximity, similar cultural traits, and, often, an important degree of economic interaction. As a consequence of these features, they generally exhibit similar patterns in their law. They also differ in important ways, however, such as regarding the degree to which formal state law penetrates social, economic, and political life; the different roles played by constitutions and judicial systems; and the extent to which they exhibit legal pluralism. After accounting for similarities and differences among the Latin-American legal systems, the article describes the role that International Human Rights Law is playing in the legal life of the region, as well as the convergence with Anglo-American legal tradition, in both Public and Private Law.