The judicialization of territorial politics in Brazil, Colombia and Spain

Abstract

This article explains how judicial review influences intergovernmental political dynamics in Brazil, Colombia and Spain. The argument is developed in light of two questions: how supreme courts have established themselves as pivotal institutions for settling vertical intergovernmental disputes, and how national and subnational politicians use judicial review in order to enhance their own interests. A comparison between the judicial review processes in federal Brazil, quasi-federal Spain, and unitary Colombia provides an answer to these questions. Accounting for the differences in the territorial organization and systems of government among these countries, the article assesses the patterns of judicial review originating from the subnational level. Findings suggest that courts affect the interaction between national and subnational politicians in the three country-cases, but through different patterns of judicialization of territorial politics.

Depois da “judicialização”: um mapa bibliográfico do Supremo

“…Geralmente, os estudos sobre controle judicial de normas estaduais destacam o papel centralizador e uniformizador do Supremo (Anselmo, 2006;Labanca, 2009;Oliveira, 2009;Vale, 2013;Barbosa, 2014;Canello, 2016a), ainda que haja controvérsias (Dantas & Ribeiro, 2018;Dantas, 2020). Nessa literatura, "judicialização" tem dois sentidos.…”

Judicialization and Health Policy in Colombia: The Implications for Evidence‐Informed Policymaking

“…There is now an extensive literature on the judicialization of politics across policymaking domains (Ginsburg, ; Hirschl, ; Vallinder & Tate, ) including an expanding subliterature on this phenomenon in Latin America (Couso, Huneeus, & Sieder, ; Daniels et al, ; Menicucci & Machado, 2010; Rios‐Figueroa & Taylor, ; Ryan, ; Saavedra‐Herrera, ; Scribner, ; Sieder, Schjolden, & Angell, ; Uprimny, ; Vale, ). While it is beyond the scope of this article to review the scholarship in this field exhaustively, it provides important context for the analysis presented here.…”