The judicial activism of the constitutional judge in Latin-America and Spain

Authors

  • Carlos Mario Molina Betancur Universidad de Medellín
  • Sergio Orlando Silva Arroyave Universidad de Medellín

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18042/cepc/aijc.24.04

Keywords:

Judicial activism, government by judges, judicial interpretation, limitations on freedom of interpretation, North American Supreme Court.

Abstract

The concept of judicial activism is an American creation with a lot of influence in Ibero-America. Through the years, many definitions have been given to judicial activism, which merges with the expression «government by judges». The concept has been criticized lately by the doctrine due to its different meanings, despite some interpretations of the Supreme Court of the United States allowing, from the judicial perspective, to better identify the cases in which the judges are called to be activists. However, these interpretations of judicial activism must be adapted to be correctly used in the Ibero-American context, because of the particularities of social inequality, problems in the distribution of wealth and the malfunctioning of democratic mechanisms, which varies widely in our culture. 

Published

2020-06-10

Issue

Section

STUDIES