In this paper we seek to explain the political struggles surrounding the judicial reform in Ecuador under the presidency of Rafael Correa. We focus on inter-party conflict as a key element in the shaping and outcome of such a policy. Based on interviews and participant observations in a key judicial administrative institution, we retrace the reform process since January 2007, when Rafael Correa first arrived to power announcing a program of profound political and institutional change (the “Citizen’s Revolution”). Since then, party officials have endeavored to remodel State institutions while purging them of their established elites mainly reluctant to the new government’s directives. We argue that the appropriation of the judicial reform process by party leaders -mainly newcomers- plays an important part in the redefinition of institutional relations and the restructuration of Ecuador’s political field by allowing them to reshape the judicial institution according to their own political ends.
