ABSTRACT
The following article aims to contribute to a historical-political understanding of relations between the superior courts and the political space in Latin America, with the analysis focusing on political regimes in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Venezuela over the past 25 years. The main objective is to better understand the recruitment procedures for judiciaries and the extent of their autonomy in terms of the public space. The data is collected by means of a historical comparison and from the political, professional, and intellectual profiles and trajectories of members of the superior courts. The results obtained demonstrate a variety of setups in the countries analyzed, allowing us to contrast scenarios dominated by the superior courts’ corporate autonomy from those instead characterized by the courts’ greater overlap with the public sphere.
recruitment of elites; judicial independence; Latin America; politics; Judiciary