Aguilar, A. (2012). Institutional changes in the public prosecutor’s office: The cases of Mexico, Chile and Brazil. Mexican law review, 4(2), 261-290. Given the critical role played by the Public Prosecutor’s Office in the criminal justice system, the reform of its powers and underlying framework is fundamental in enhancing the rule of law and democracy. …
Jaime Couso. “Judicial Murder in Chile: Patterns, Cases, and Doctrines for Prosecuting Jurists,” in Transitional Justice and the Criminal Responsibility of Judges. Edited by Claudia Cárdenas Aravena, Jaime Couso Salas, Florian Jeßberger, Milan Kuhli, pp. 61-73. London: Routledge, 2025. Summary: This chapter examines the feasibility of grounding attribution of criminal responsibility to judges for judicial behavior …
This article highlights how attorneys are central to these strategies, revealing the political role of legal professionals in reinforcing corporate power under weakened democratic institutions.
This article investigates how the legacies of authoritarian legal systems influence the capacity of attorneys to drive judicial reform in emerging democracies, with case studies from Chile, Argentina, and Brazil.
Alexandra Huneeus, “Judging from a Guilty Conscience: The Chilean Judiciary’s Human Rights Turn.” Law & Social Inquiry, vol. 35, no. 1 (2010): 99–135. Summary: Since the detention of General Pinochet in London in 1998 on charges of crimes against humanity, Chile’s judges have sentenced more former officials of the military regime for human rights viohtions …
Juan Guzmán, “The Chilean Dictatorship and the Judiciary.” California Western International Law Journal, Vol. 44, No. 2 (2014): 207-216 Summary: The Chilean judiciary was considered to be traditionally independent up until 1970, when Salvador Allende was elected President of the country. But during Allende’s government the judiciary started to lose its objectivity and independence. During the …
Lisa Hilbink, “Constitutional Rewrite in Chile: Moving toward a Social and Democratic Rule of Law?” Hague Journal on the Rule of Law, vol. 13, no. 2 (2021): 223-234. Summary: Chile has often drawn the global spotlight, serving as a laboratory for some of the most dramatic political experiments of the past fifty-plus years. Popular discontent with …
Marny A. Requa, “A Human Rights Triumph? Dictatorship-era Crimes and the Chilean Supreme Court.” Human Rights Law Review, Vol. 12, No. 1 (2012): 79–106 Summary: This article assesses the dramatic shift in Chilean Supreme Court jurisprudence toward accountability for crimes committed during the dictatorship and sets it within the context of judicial reform and political …
Eduardo A. Chia, “Authoritarian Constitutionalism, Judicial Capture or the Ambivalence of Modern Law?” Oñati Socio-Legal Series, vol. 15, no. 2 (2025): 427–458. Summary: The work builds primarily on literature analysis to critically engage with two interrelated issues: (i) the notion of “authoritarian constitutionalism” and (ii) the ambivalences observed in judicature’s conceptual articulation and institutional structuration. …
This chapter explores the role of law, lawyers, and legal activism in authoritarian and transitional contexts, using Chile’s experience as a case study.