Judges, legal theory and ideology in South America

Abstract

In the Latin American socio-legal context, the predominance of positivism and legal formalism has been decisive for legal practice to be disseminated as impartial and objective by the different actors in the legal field, a perception that has been essential for the instrumentalization of law, which in repeatedly benefits the elites and private interests, however this dominance in recent times has been limited by the appearance of other theoretical perspectives such as Legal Argumentation, Neoconstitutionalism, New Latin American Constitutionalism, Legal Criticism, Transitional Justice, among others. possibilities. This theoretical proliferation has led to two scenarios, first that the law in its practice is more democratic, the constitutional judges carry out progressive sentences taking as reference the international rights treaties, the interpretation of reality and the constitutional principles and the second scenario is that the decisions on the judicial investigations of the political powers have been intensified with actions that oscillate between the criminal and administrative responsibility of those investigated in a balanced way and impunity and benefits for those who have an influence on the decision-making bodies.