Supreme Court of Argentina
Supreme Court of Argentina | |
---|---|
Corte Suprema de Justicia de la Nación Argentina | |
Argentine Constitution | |
Judge term length | 75 years old. At that age, the President and the Senate can keep the judges for an additional term of five years, following the same process established for the appointment. The five-year extension can be repeated indefinitely. |
Number of positions | 5 |
Website | csjn |
President of the Supreme Court | |
Currently | Horacio Rosatti |
Since | 1 October 2021 |
Vice President of the Supreme Court | |
Currently | Carlos Rosenkrantz |
Since | 1 October 2021 |
Argentina portal |
The Supreme Court of Argentina (Spanish: Corte Suprema de Argentina), officially known as the Supreme Court of Justice of the Argentine Nation (Spanish: Corte Suprema de Justicia de la Nación Argentina, CSJN), is the
The Supreme Court functions as a last resort tribunal. Its rulings cannot be appealed. It also decides on cases dealing with the interpretation of the
The members of the Supreme Court are appointed by the President with the agreement of at least two thirds of the present Senate members in a session convened for that purpose, and can only be removed by an impeachment process called juicio político ("political trial"), initiated by the Chamber of Deputies and carried out by the Senate, exclusively on grounds of improper behaviour.
Headquarters
The Supreme Court of Argentina is headquartered in the Palacio de Justicia, in the Buenos Aires neighbourhood of San Nicolás (the surrounding area is commonly known as "Tribunales" due to the palace's location). The building was designed by French architect Norbert Maillart in 1906, and initially inaugurated in 1910. Subsequent works, both logistical and aesthetic, continued until 1942, and among its most noteworthy monuments are Justice, by Rogelio Yrurtia, and José de San Martín, by Luis Perlotti.
History
Until the 2000s, the Court lacked independence from the
From the Infamous Decade to the 1994 reform
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Court was composed of five magistrates.[1] Following the 1930 military coup by José Félix Uriburu, which initiated the Infamous Decade, the five justices recognized the new authorities and officialized the rupture of constitutional order,[1] thus beginning a precedent which would affect much of Argentina's history.[1]
During
Following the 1955 catholic-nationalist
When the constitutional government of Arturo Frondizi (UCRI) came to power in 1958, three judges resigned.[1] During Frondizi's term, the number of judges of the Supreme Court was increased, while all Peronist judges of the judicial system were removed.[1]
In 1963, the following democratic government, of
An
Following the democratic transition, the highest responsible military members of the dictatorship were put on trial in the Trial of the Juntas (1985). However, this trial was not supervised by the Supreme Court, but by the Federal Criminal Appeal Court.
After Carlos Menem's election as president, the Argentine judicial system was the target of much pressure from the executive power.[1] In 1989, Menem expanded Argentina's highest court from five to nine members, and chose the four new justices.[1] The Senate approved Menem's choice on April 19, 1990, during a secret parliamentary session which lasted 7 minutes, and to which the opposition was not invited.[1] The resignation of judge Bacqué insured an "absolute majority" for Menemism.[1]
The Supreme Court since 1994 and the 2003 reform
The
In the 2000s, since the interim presidency of Eduardo Duhalde and especially during the term of Néstor Kirchner which started in 2003, all members of Menem's "majority" have either been removed or resigned. Dr. Antonio Boggiano, the last of these, was removed on 29 September 2005. Not all justices were replaced, so there were still two vacancies.
The
This change was an important phase in the 2005 ruling which stated that crimes of
Another important reform took place in 2003. Effectively, since 19 June 2003, by presidential decree, candidates for a seat in the Supreme Court must be presented by the Executive Branch for consideration. The nominees' resumes must be made public and announced by the
Furthermore, on 2 July 2003, the Senate approved a reform which forced its Commission to publicize its choices regarding confirmation of the nominations of magistrates of the judicial system and of the public ministry.[1]
Finally, following a colloquium organized by the CELS NGO, Chief Justice Petracchi agreed to publish the Court's decisions.[1]
At times, most recently near the end of 2006, several justices complained that the President's delay in appointing the two vacancies in the Court was problematic, because a nominally nine-member Court needs a majority of five to sign consensual decisions, and demanded that either replacements be appointed for former justices Augusto Belluscio and Antonio Boggiano (as required by law), or that Congress pass a law reducing the Court to seven justices (thus reducing the majority to four).[2] On 9 November 2006 Senator Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (the President's wife) presented a legislative bill to repeal Law 24774, which dictated the increase to nine justices, in order to eventually return to the original number of five. Most of the members of the Court welcomed this project.[3]
List of presidents
- Francisco de las Carreras[4] (1863–1870)
- Salvador Maria del Carril[4] (1870–1877)
- José Benjamín Gorostiaga[4] (1877–1887)
- Benjamin Victorica[4] (1887–1892)
- Benjamín Paz[4] (1892–1902)
- Abel Bazán[4] (1903)
- Antonio Bermejo[4][5] (1904–1929)
- José Figueroa Alcorta[4] (1929–1931)
- Roberto Repetto[4] (1932–1946)
- Antonio Sagarna[6] (1946–1947)
- Tomas Darío Casares[6] (1947–1949)
- Felipe Santiago Pérez (1949)
- Luis Ricardo Longhi (1949–1952)
- Rodolfo Guillermo Valenzuela (1952–1955)
- Alfredo Orgaz[7][8][9] (1955–1960)
- Benjamín Villegas Basavilbaso (1960–1964)
- Aristóbulo Donato Aráoz de Lamadrid (1964–1966)
- Eduardo Ortiz Basualdo[10] (1966–1973)
- Miguel Ángel Bercaitz (1973–1976)
- Adolfo R. Gabrielli[11] (1976–1983)
- Genaro R. Carrió[10](1983–1985)
- Ricardo Levene[12] (1990–1993)
- Julio Nazareno (1993–2003)
- Carlos Fayt (2003–2004)
- Enrique Santiago Petracchi (2004–2007)
- Ricardo Lorenzetti (2007–2018)
- Carlos Rosenkrantz (2018–2021)
- Horacio Rosatti (2021–present)
Current justices
The current composition of the Supreme Court is as follows:
Justice | Age | Nominated by | Start date / Length of service |
Retirement | Legal education |
Succeeded | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
President Horacio Rosatti born 11 August 1956 Santa Fe, Santa Fe |
67 | Mauricio Macri | 29 June 2016 7 years, 293 days |
11 August 2031 | National University of the Littoral | Zaffaroni
| |
Vice President Carlos Rosenkrantz born 28 October 1958 Buenos Aires |
65 | Mauricio Macri | 22 August 2016 7 years, 239 days |
28 October 2033 | University of Buenos Aires | Fayt | |
Minister Juan Carlos Maqueda born 29 December 1949 Río Tercero, Córdoba |
74 | Eduardo Duhalde | 30 December 2002 21 years, 109 days |
29 December 2024 | Catholic University of Córdoba | Bossert | |
Minister Ricardo Lorenzetti born 19 September 1955 Rafaela, Santa Fe |
68 | Néstor Kirchner | 12 December 2004 19 years, 127 days |
19 September 2030 | National University of the Littoral | Vázquez |
Assessment
The renewal of the Supreme Court in the first years of the Kirchner administration was advertised and is usually acknowledged as a positive step, bringing more independence to the Judicial Branch and addressing issues of ideological bias.[13][14]
Until mid-2004, all of the justices were male. They were considered
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af Yanina Guthmann, La reforma del sistema de Justicia (2003): una mirada critica Archived 2019-07-12 at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish)
- ^ Clarín, 9 November 2006. Desde el Senado, el kirchnerismo respondió a las quejas de la Corte.
- ^ Clarín, 11 November 2006. "El proyecto de Cristina Kirchner es un salto en la calidad institucional".
- ^ a b c d e f g h i TANZI, HÉCTOR JOSÉ (March 2005). "HISTORIA IDEOLÓGICA DE LA CORTE SUPREMA DE JUSTICIA DE LA NACIÓN (1930–1947)" (PDF). UNIVERSIDAD DEL SALVADOR: Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas; Facultad de Filosofía, Historia y Letras. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-04-17. Retrieved 2019-04-25.
- ISBN 9789872004859.
- ^ a b "Grandes jueces de la Corte Suprema de Justicia de La Nación". ijeditores.com. Retrieved 2019-04-25.
- ^ "Al estilo de Alfredo Orgaz". www.lanacion.com.ar (in Spanish). 2000-09-19. Retrieved 2019-04-25.
- ^ Jurisprudencia argentina (in Spanish). 1963.
- ^ Nacin̤, Argentina Corte Suprema de Justicia de la (1960). Fallos de la Corte Suprema de Justicia nacional, con la relacin̤ de sus respectivas causas (in Spanish). Mosconi.
- ^ a b BARRANCOS y VEDIA, FERNANDO N. "LA CORTE SUPREMA DE JUSTICIA EN HISTORIA CONSTITUCIONAL ARGENTINA" (PDF).
- ^ "Falleció el ex presidente de la Corte Suprema Adolfo R. Gabrielli". www.lanacion.com.ar (in Spanish). 2002-04-26. Retrieved 2019-04-25.
- ^ "Fallecio Ricardo Levene (h), ex presidente de la corte". Diario El Dia de La Plata (in Spanish). June 15, 2000. Retrieved 2019-04-25.
- ISBN 9781137434265.
- ISBN 9780804783910.
- ^ Hugo, Seleme. "Argentina y el Liberalismo Ausente". Argentina: La Lucha Judicial por la Democracia y Los Derechos Humanos (in Spanish).
- ^ ARGENTINA: Single Woman, Atheist, Heads to Seat on High Court Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine – Inter Press Service News, 21 January 2005. Comments and interview.
External links
- Official website
- Case law of the Supreme Court of Argentina
- Ministry of Justice
- Argentine President's First 100 Days Break From 30 Years of Business-As-Usual – The renewal process sponsored by the Kirchner administration.
- Argentina gets first female Chief Justice – NDTV.com, 29 June 2004.
- The new Supreme Court member – Buenos Aires Herald.