Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T07:55:29.216Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

7 - Courting Judicial Legitimacy

An Experimental Study of the Colombian Constitutional Court

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 August 2022

Sandra Botero
Affiliation:
Universidad del Rosario, Colombia
Daniel M. Brinks
Affiliation:
University of Texas, Austin
Ezequiel A. Gonzalez-Ocantos
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Get access

Summary

Since its creation in 1991, the Constitutional Court has played an important role in the Colombian context because of the broad political, economic, cultural, and social impact of its decisions. Several rulings, however, have triggered fierce criticism, putting into question the very legitimacy of the court. This chapter seeks to identify some of the factors that contribute to improve the legitimacy of high courts in the eyes of the country’s citizens, especially when they hand down controversial rulings. The chapter reports a vignette survey experiment on college students aimed at determining under what conditions citizens are more likely to provide diffuse support to the court or to what extent the court’s legitimacy depends on its performance (specific support). It hypothesizes that the legitimacy of the court is affected by the way in which its decisions are framed and justified, and finds that by wording and framing judicial rulings so that they convey a sense of principled reasoning and neutrality, the court helps translate specific support into diffuse support. Specifically, decisions based on scientific reasoning are more suitable to achieve that goal than other types of argument, including those based on legal norms and precedent.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Limits of Judicialization
From Progress to Backlash in Latin America
, pp. 164 - 194
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Albarracín Caballero, M. (2011). Social Movements and the Constitutional Court: Legal Recognition of the Rights of Same-Sex Couples in Colombia. Sur-International Journal on Human Rights 14, 732.Google Scholar
Arteaga-Iriarte, S. & Rodríguez-Raga, J. C. (2010). Interesting Friendships: Interest Groups and Amici Curiae Interventions before the Colombian Constitutional Court. Paper read at the Midwest Political Science Association annual Congress (Chicago, April 22–25).Google Scholar
Bartels, B. & Johnston, C. (2013). On the Ideological Foundations of Supreme Court Legitimacy in the American Public. American Journal of Political Science, 57(1), 184–99.Google Scholar
Berger, M. (2020). Colombia Was Close to Legalizing Abortion. Instead, a Top Court Kept Restrictions in Place. Washington Post (March 3). www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/03/03/colombia-was-close-legalizing-abortion-instead-top-court-kept-restrictions-place/Google Scholar
Botero, S. (2020). Confianza, apoyo a la democracia y corrupción: una mirada a la Corte Constitucional en la opinión pública colombiana. Latin American Law Review 4, 2547.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bustamante, G. (2011). El origen y desarrollo de la acción de tutela en Colombia. Semana (June 9). www.semana.com/nacion/articulo/el-origen-desarrollo-accion-tutela-colombia/241093-3Google Scholar
Caldeira, G. & Gibson, J. L. (1992). The Etiology of Public Support for the Supreme Court. American Journal of Political Science 36(3), 635–64.Google Scholar
Cepeda, M. J. (2005). The Judicialization of Politics in Colombia: The Old and the New. In Sieder, R., Schjolden, L. & Angell, A., eds., The Judicialization of Politics in Latin America. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 67103.Google Scholar
Cifuentes, E. (1995). El constitucionalismo de la pobreza. Dereito: Revista xuridica da Universidade de Santiago de Compostela 4(2), 5378.Google Scholar
Clavijo Vergara, S. (2001). Fallos y fallas económicas de las altas Cortes: El caso de Colombia, 1991–2000. Revista Del Banco De La República 74(882), 2556.Google Scholar
Corte Constitucional (2022). Nota de prensa: Conducta del aborto solo será punible cuando se realice después de la vigésimo cuarta (24) semana de gestación y, en todo caso, este límite temporal no será applicable a los tres supuestos fijados en la Sentencia C-355 de 2006. www.corteconstitucional.gov.co/noticia.php?NOTA-DE-PRENSA---Conducta-del-aborto-solo-será-punible-cuando-se-realice-después-de-la-vigésimo-cuarta-(24)-semana-de-gestación-y,-en-todo-caso,-este-l%C3%ADmite-temporal-no-será-aplicable-a-los-tres-supuestos-fijados-en-la--Sentencia-C-355-de-2006-9225Google Scholar
Easton, D. (1965). A Systems Analysis of Political Life. New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Farganis, D. (2012). Do Reasons Matter? The Impact of Opinion Content on Supreme Court Legitimacy. Political Research Quarterly 65(1), 206–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fiss, O. (1981). Objectivity and Interpretation. Stanford Law Review 34(4), 739–63.Google Scholar
Gardbaum, S. (2018). What Makes for More or Less Powerful Constitutional Courts? Duke Journal of Comparative and International Law 29(1), 140.Google Scholar
Gargarella, R. (1996). La justicia frente al gobierno: Sobre el carácter contramayoritario del poder judicial. Barcelona: Editorial Ariel.Google Scholar
Gibson, J. L. & Caldeira, G. (1992). Blacks and the United States Supreme Court: Models of Diffuse Support. Journal of Politics 54(4), 1120–45.Google Scholar
Gibson, J. L. & Nelson, M. (2014). The Legitimacy of the US Supreme Court: Conventional Wisdoms and Recent Challenges Thereto. Annual Review of Law and Social Science 10, 201–19.Google Scholar
Gibson, J. L. & Nelson, M. (2015). Is the U.S. Supreme Court’s Legitimacy Grounded in Performance Satisfaction and Ideology? American Journal of Political Science 59, 162–74.Google Scholar
Gibson, J. L., Caldeira, G. & Baird, V. (1998). On the Legitimacy of National High Courts. American Political Science Review 92(2), 343–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ginsburg, T. (2008). The Global Spread of Constitutional Review. In Whittington, K. E., Kelemen, R. D. & Caldeira, G., eds., The Oxford Handbook of Law and Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 8198.Google Scholar
González, D. A. (2017). The Colombia Constitutional Court: Building Legitimacy in its First Period. Unpublished paper. www.law.uchicago.edu/files/Session%20VI_Gonzalez.pdfGoogle Scholar
Hasen, R. L. (2013). End of the Dialogue: Political Polarization, the Supreme Court, and Congress. Southern California Law Review 86(2), 205–62.Google Scholar
Hirschl, R. (2004). Toward Juristocracy: The Origins and Consequences of the New Constitutionalism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hirschl, R. (2008). The Judicialization of Politics. In Whittington, K. E., Kelemen, R. D & Caldeira, G., eds., The Oxford Handbook of Law and Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 119–41.Google Scholar
Jaramillo, I. C. & Alfonso, T. (2008). Mujeres, cortes y medios: La reforma judicial del aborto. Bogotá: Siglo del Hombre Editores – Universidad de los Andes.Google Scholar
Jasanoff, S. (1990). The Fifth Branch: Science Advisers as Policymakers. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kalmanovitz, S. (2000). Los efectos económicos de la Corte Constitucional. Bogotá: Corporación Centro de Estudios Constitucionales, Plural.Google Scholar
Kam, C. D. & Franzese, R. J. (2007). Modeling and Interpreting Interactive Hypotheses in Regression Analysis. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Linares, S. (2008). La (i)legitimidad democrática del control judicial de las leyes. Madrid: Marcial Pons, Ediciones Jurídicas y Sociales.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maldonado Castañeda, O. J. (2014). Cortes, expertos y grupos de interés: movilización y localización del conocimiento experto en la sentencia C-355 de 2006. Universitas Humanística 77, 327–53.Google Scholar
Merhof, K. (2015). Building a Bridge between Reality and the Constitution: The Establishment and Development of the Colombian Constitutional Court. International Journal of Constitutional Law 13(3), 714–32.Google Scholar
Moreno, P. (2014). Producción de evidencia psicológica en el debate jurídico sobre adopción gay en Colombia. Universitas Psychologica 13(5), 1931–40.Google Scholar
Nunes, R. M. (2010). Ideational Origins of Progressive Judicial Activism: The Colombian Constitutional Court and the Right to Health. Latin American Politics and Society 52(3), 6797.Google Scholar
Rivera, D., Plata, J. C. & Rodríguez-Raga, J. C. (2019). Barómetro de las Américas 2018: Democracia e instituciones. Bogotá: USAID-Universidad de los Andes.Google Scholar
Rodríguez, C. & Rodríguez, D. (2010). Cortes y cambio social. Cómo la Corte Constitucional transformó el desplazamiento forzado en Colombia. Bogotá: Dejusticia.Google Scholar
Rodríguez-Raga, J. C. (2011). Strategic Prudence in the Colombian Constitutional Court, 1992–2006. PhD dissertation, University of Pittsburgh. http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/8953/Google Scholar
Rodríguez-Raga, J. C. & Virgüez-Ruiz, S. (2019). Strategically Prudent Judges and Power Expansion in the Colombian Constitutional Court. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Ruibal, A. (2010). The Sociological Concept of Judicial Legitimacy: Notes of Latin American Constitutional Courts. Mexican Law Review III(2), 343–56.Google Scholar
Scurich, N. (2018). Styles of Argumentation in Judicial Opinions (Legitimating Judicial Decisions). Annual Review of Law and Social Science 14, 205–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sieder, R., Schjolden, L. & Angell, A., eds. (2005). The Judicialization of Politics in Latin America. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Simon, D. & Scurich, N. (2011). Lay Judgments of Judicial Decision Making. Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 8(4), 709–27.Google Scholar
Staton, J. (2006). Constitutional Review and the Selective Promotion of Case Results. American Journal of Political Science 50(1), 98112.Google Scholar
Tate, C. N. & Vallinder, T. (1995). The Global Expansion of Judicial Power: The Judicialization of Politics. In Tate, C. N. & Vallinder, T., eds., The Global Expansion of Judicial Power. New York: New York University Press, pp. 110.Google Scholar
Uprimny, R. (2003). Legitimidad y conveniencia del control constitucional a la economía. In Burgos, G., ed., Independencia judicial en América Latina. ¿De quién? ¿Para qué? ¿Cómo? Bogotá: ILSAGoogle Scholar
Uprimny, R. (2004). The Constitutional Court and Control of Presidential Extraordinary Powers in Colombia. In Gloppen, S., Gargarella, R. & Skaar, E., eds., Democratization and the Judiciary: The Accountability Function of Courts in New Democracies. London: Frank Cass.Google Scholar
Uprimny, R. (2006). The Enforcement of Social Rights by the Colombian Constitutional Court: Cases and Debates. In Gargarella, R., Domingo, P. & Roux, T., eds., Courts and Social Transformation in New Democracies: An Institutional Voice for the Poor? Burlington: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Yamin, A. E. & Parra-Vera, Ó. (2009). How Do Courts Set Health Policy? The Case of the Colombian Constitutional Court. PLoS Medicine 6(2), 147–50.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×