Description: Ideas about law are undergoing dramatic change in Latin America. The consolidation of democracy as the predominant form of government and the proliferation of transnational legal instruments have ushered in an era of new legal conceptions and practices. Law has become a core focus of political movements and policy-making. This volume explores the changing legal ideas and practices that accompany, cause, and are a consequence of the judicialization of politics in Latin America. It is the product of a three-year international research effort, sponsored by the Law and Society Association, the Latin American Studies Association, and the Ford Foundation, that gathered leading and emerging scholars of Latin American courts from across disciplines and across continents.
Brief description: Javier A. Couso is a Professor of Law at Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago, Chile. In 2006-7, Couso was the Tinker Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His work focuses on the study of Chilean and Latin American constitutional law and processes of judicialization of politics in the region. He has published extensively on such matters, in journals such as Democratization; Verfassung und Recht in Übersee (VRÜ) (Law and Politics in Africa, Asia and Latin America); Griffith Law Review; and the Revista de Ciencia Política. He has also contributed chapters in a number of edited volumes.