Women’s Rights at the Argentine Supreme Court: Innovative Non-Jurisdictional Offices for Women and a Conservative Jurisprudence on Reproductive Rights

Abstract

This paper aims to contribute to the analysis of the role of constitutional courts in the current process of redefinition and enforcement of women’s rights in Latin America. It intends to identify positive synergies, as well as obstacles for a consequential action of these courts in the advancement of gender justice and women’s rights. As a first step in that direction, it presents a case study based on the Argentine Supreme Court. The focus is placed on non-jurisprudential actions developed by the Court through the creation of the Office for Domestic Violence and the Office for Women within the Court’s institutional structure, as well as on the Court’s main case-law on reproductive rights. The basic framework for the analysis draws on the main factors identified by socio-legal studies on the advancement of rights in general, and women’s rights in particular, through courts. The approach is based on the interaction between legal mobilization and legal opportunity, including the role of women justices.