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Different Ways of Losing: Public Defenders (and Private Counsel) at the Supreme Court of Argentina

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Juan F. González-Bertomeu
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Abstract

Though most countries have established public defense systems to represent indigent defendants, this is far from implying their offices are in good shape. Indeed, significant variation likely exists in the systems' effectiveness, across societies and at the subnational level. Defense agencies' performance likely depends on their configuration, including their funding, their internal arrangements, and their selection and retention mechanisms. Centered on public defense in Argentina, this article compares the performance of public and retained counsel at the country's Supreme Court. Public defenders' offices received a boost in the last two decades, and are institutionally well positioned to square off against prosecutors, putting them at least on par with the averaged retained counsel. Using a fresh dataset of around 3000 appeal decisions from 2008 to 2013, the study largely tests representational capabilities by looking at whether counsel meets briefs' formal requirements, a subset of decisions particularly valuable to reduce potential biases. It finds that formal dismissals are significantly less frequent when a public defender is named in an appeal, particularly when a federal defender is involved. It also discusses and tests alternative mechanisms. The article's findings illuminate discussions of support structures for litigation, criminal justice reform, and criminal defendants' rights.

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Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 54 , Issue 2 , June 2020 , pp. 354 - 390
Copyright
© 2020 Law and Society Association.

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Footnotes

Diego Alustiza, Mariana Acevedo, Magdalena Bulit, Viridiana Isla, Antonio Ribichini, Georgina Timossi, and Isabel Valadez provided very useful research assistance. The Cámara de Casación Penal provided access to this court's files. For their valuable comments and suggestions, I thank Gustavo Arballo, Alejandro Chetman, José R. Nicolás-Carlock, Marcelo Ferrante, Cecilia Hopp, Lewis Kornhauser, Margarita Maxit, Sergio Muro, Pablo Pejlatowicz, Kelly Rader, Roberto Saba, Maria Paula Saffon, Catalina Smulovitz, Pavithra Suryanarayan, the participants of seminars at LASA 2018, University of Palermo, and ITAM, as well as the editors of, and three anonymous referees from, Law & Society Review. All remaining errors are the author's.

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