Judicialización de la política, politización de la ley

Abstract

In this article, the author asserts that there has been profound shift in power away from legislatures and toward courts and other legal institutions. This shift, which has been called judicialization, has become more or less global in its reach. The article carefully examines this constant ebb and flow, this constant shift in the role played by courts and judges in judicializing politics —the greater participation of judges and courts in political matters— and by the various political actors in politicizing the law —the growing participation of politicians in judicial matters. The author distinguishes at least three ways in which courts have taken on new and important roles relative to legislatures. Therefore we find ourselves with the transformation of political questions into legal ones. And this means that legal/constitutional considerations and rhetoric assume new and sometimes decisive importance in ordinary legislative policy making.