Latin American Courts Going Public: A Comparative Survey Assessment of Ten Democracies 

Over the last two decades, Latin American high courts have been opening themselves to the public through a variety of institutional innovations. They have been implementing mechanisms of active social participation in the judicial decision-making process, such as public hearings, public monitoring commissions and the acceptance of amicus curiae briefs. Further, they have sought to increase institutional transparency using their websites as well as social media. Two important strands of the judicial politics literature help us to provide explanations for this court behaviour: the strategic approach stresses the need of courts to build institutional legitimacy or public support to be able to defend themselves against political attacks while ideational explanations highlight the relevance of ideas in shaping the behaviour of judicial actors.   This paper explores such court behaviour through the analysis of an expert survey that we designed and conducted during 2022 with high court judges, court staff, lawyers, academics, politicians, and civil society representatives in ten countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay). With this perception-based approach, we assess the intensity with which the engagement with the public has taken place, the motivations behind such engagement as well as the effects of this court behaviour on the relation of the courts with the public and the elected branches of government. The impact of the covid-19 pandemic on court’s disposition to go public is likewise assessed.