Ezequiel González Ocantos assesses the role that law and courts play in Latin American politics.

Focusing on several pressing issues in Latin American politics, Ezequiel González Ocantos’s new edited volume The Limits of Judicialization argues why the institutional and cultural changes that empowered the region’s courts from the 1980s often fall short of the promise of greater accountability and rights protection.

The topics the volume explores include abortion, state violence, judicial corruption and corruption prosecutions.

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 assesses the role that law and courts play in Latin American politics.

The volume is aimed at scholars and students of comparative judicial politics, law and society and Latin American politics.

Ezequiel said: “I’m very pleased to see our edited volume out in the world. It brings together a cross-disciplinary group of scholars of Latin American judicial institutions, most of whom are actually based in the region.

“We hope to call attention to why it may be problematic to expect too much from the courts in terms of social and policy change, and to start a conversation about how to make sure the growing involvement of courts in salient political debates makes more productive contributions to democratic life.”

Those interested in reading more can download chapter one for free.

Ezequiel is currently finishing a book on the drivers and implications of corruption prosecutions in Latin America. The book is due to be released in April 2023, also by Cambridge University Press.