ABSTRACT
The chapter reviews recent work on Latin American courts with an emphasis on those tribunals that exercise constitutional adjudication, and organizes the literature of the field around five questions and their respective answers in the literature. The first question tackles the concept of judicial independence and power. The second question analyzes court empowerment by looking at under what conditions political actors delegate power to courts. The third question is what explains judges’ behavior on the bench looking carefully at the motivational factors that the literature has suggested and the classical divide between judges’ attitudes and strategic considerations. In doing so, the chapter reviews critically the discussion of the law and legal ideas or cultures. The final two questions explore the relevance and determinants of, on the one hand, court activation and, on the other, compliance with decisions. The chapter concludes by offering some insights into the challenges lying ahead.
