ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the judicial reforms attempted in eleven Latin America countries during the 1990s.1 The similar timing of the reforms, within a context of democratic transition and consolidation justify this comparison. The main questions that this chapter addresses are: Are judicial reforms deep enough to ensure the enforcement of the rule of law in accordance with the democratic transition and consolidation process? Are they enough to satisfy the requirements of the demands from the society and from the international organizations that constituted the factors of the reforms in the first place? And finally: How much independence, efficiency and impartiality of the judicial system can be realistically expected from the judicial reforms recently implemented in Latin America?
