Latin American Courts Going Public: Institutional Innovations for Social Participation in the Judicial Decision-Making Process

拉美法院上市：社会参与司法决策的制度创新

• 批准号: 404946327
• 负责人: Dr. Mariana Llanos
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: GIGA Institut für Lateinamerika-Studien (ILAS)
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2017-12-31 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/404946327?language=en
• 关键词: Latin; American; Courts; Going; Public

In recent years Latin American constitutional and supreme courts have engaged in institutional innovations that promote the inclusion of civil society, broad interest groups, and other stakeholders in their decision-making processes. On the one hand, these institutional arrangements seek the active integration of third parties into judicial decision-making through different mechanisms, such as public hearings, monitoring commissions, or amicus curiae. On the other hand, courts promote the creation of official websites and radio and television channels, as well as the use of social media with the explicit goal of improving public knowledge, enabling debate about their work, and broadening the audiences of judicial processes. Why are Latin American courts so concerned about their public standing? What are the motivations and circumstances that have led them to adopt social participation mechanisms? Which are the effects of their use on the courts’ relationship with the public and the elected branches of government? The implementation of social participation mechanisms has a potentially strong impact on the democratic quality of court behavior and, in general, on the role of courts in democratic regimes.This political science project delineates a theoretical and methodological strategy to answer the above mentioned questions, focusing empirically on the highest courts with constitutional review powers in Latin America, a region that is pioneering in this trend. We will present the first systematic mapping of existing social participation mechanisms in judicial decision-making processes for 18 countries. We will cover the scope and intensity with which courts are using such mechanisms in practice. Fieldwork in two countries will further contribute to explaining the reasons and effects of their implementation. We assume that the different characteristics of the sociopolitical regime as well as of the judges sitting at the bench result in varying levels of court engagement in institutional innovation. Our research embraces the contribution of classical judicial politics literature, i.e. the strategic and ideational accounts. The project uses a multi-methods approach. It applies qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) for the assessment at the regional level and process tracing for the case studies. We conceive this research as a basis for future investigations within and beyond Latin America. Furthermore, we contribute to theory development by adding these novel components of court behavior today overlooked by the comparative political literature.

近年来，拉丁美洲的宪法法院和最高法院进行了体制创新，促进将民间社会、广泛的利益集团和其他利益攸关方纳入其决策过程。一方面，这些体制安排寻求通过不同的机制，如公开听证会、监督委员会或法庭之友，将第三方积极纳入司法决策。另一方面，法院推动建立官方网站、广播和电视频道，以及使用社会媒体，其明确目标是提高公众的认识，使人们能够就其工作展开辩论，并扩大司法程序的受众。为什么拉丁美洲的法院如此关注他们的公众地位？是什么样的动机和环境导致他们采用社会参与机制？它们的使用对法院与公众和民选政府部门的关系有哪些影响？社会参与机制的实施对法院行为的民主性以及法院在民主制度中的作用具有潜在的重大影响。本政治学项目以具有违宪审查权的拉美地区最高法院为研究对象，从理论和方法上回答了上述问题。我们将首次系统地绘制18个国家司法决策过程中现有社会参与机制的地图。我们将讨论法院在实践中使用这种机制的范围和强度。在两个国家的实地工作将进一步有助于解释执行这些建议的原因和效果。我们假设，社会政治制度的不同特点，以及法官坐在板凳上的结果在不同程度的法院参与制度创新。我们的研究包含了古典司法政治学文献的贡献，即战略和观念的帐户。该项目采用多种方法。在区域一级采用定性比较分析，在案例研究中采用过程追踪。我们设想这项研究的基础上，未来的调查内外拉丁美洲。此外，我们通过添加这些被比较政治文献忽视的法院行为的新成分，为理论发展做出了贡献。