This work explores what we have learned so far about the process of judicial independence institution-building in the last fifteen to twenty years. Using case studies of Latin American cases produced in the field of judicial politics, I offer a typology of the socio-political contexts and the triggering forces behind judicial reforms. I test the explanatory power of recent approaches developed to explain the political incentives for the establishment of judicial independence in democratizing nations. Emphasis is put on identifying contextual incentives as well as main actors promoting change, but a discussion of concepts, definitions and research methods used so far in the field, is of course a secondary but very important aspect of this work.
