Unidad 5 (Sesión 1): Función jurisdiccional en el pensamiento jurídico latinoamericano

Judicial Function and Judicial Activism in Latin America In this session, Professor Leandro Cornejo analyzes the evolution of the judicial function in Latin American legal thought and the contemporary debate on judicial activism. To this end, he examines the formalist neoclassical model of the first half of the 20th century, which conceived of the judge as a mere “mouthpiece of the law,” and contrasts it with the critiques that emerged in the second half of the century, based on reinterpretations of Kelsen and Hart, which highlight the indeterminacy of legal language and the judge's inevitable discretion. He also addresses Dworkin's non-positivist proposal, oriented toward guaranteeing rights through principles, and finally develops the post-positivist perspective, which redefines judicial activism not as a pathology, but as a legitimate possibility within the constitutional state, always subject to rational normative parameters and limits. This material is produced by the Association of Judges for Justice and Democracy (JUSDEM) and the Peruvian Association of Women Judges (APMJ), with funding from the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID). Video Chapters 00:00 Introduction 02:07 Latin American Neoclassical Legal Thought 10:41 The Critique of Contemporary Law in the Second Half of the 20th Century 18:16 The Non-Positivist and Non-Natural Law Alternative 24:10 The Post-Positivist Alternative 29:45 Key Ideas