III. Supreme Courts: “Filters’’ and the Case Selection. Argentina’s Writ of Certiorari in a Comparative Perspective

Abstract

This work deals with Argentina’s experience on filters (or qualitative case selection mechanisms) known as the “Argentine writ of certiorari”, in a comparative and contextual perspective. After an overview of the Federal Supreme Court and the fusion of legal traditions that characterizes Argentina’s legal system, the author identifies the two dimensions of the so called “Supreme Courts” crisis (the quantitative and qualitative one) and the general mechanisms used in different countries to address it: the “overproduction” and the “case reduction” instruments. Finally, the articles analyzes the argentine “certiorari” selection device, based on the “relevance” or “transcendence” of the matters involved in a case, and the discretionary power of the Supreme Court to admit or deny irrelevant issues, without proper justification.