ABSTRACT
Over the last three decades, Latin American countries have transformed, sometimes radically, their justice systems in order to make them more independent, accessible and efficient. Latin American constitutional courts also exhibit interesting variations, both across time and space, in the construction of constitutional due process clauses. This chapter provides evidence of a relationship between the degree to which Latin American constitutional judges interpret criminal due process rights broadly, and the degree to which they are institutionally insulated and empowered by judicial review. In particular, there is some evidence that if the institutional architecture provides judges with a certain level of independence, more powerful constitutional judges tend to be more protective of due process rights. In addition to the preliminary regional evidence of the relationship between institutional changes and constitutional interpretation, the chapter has contrasted the cases of Colombia and Mexico to illustrate the link between the two variables of interest.
