Gatekeeping: Documents, Legal Knowledge, and Judicial Authority in Contemporary Argentina

Abstract

This article addresses the question of judicial authority by examining the mundane practices of legal knowledge-making that unfold within the Argentine Supreme Court of Justice. Building on a larger ethnographic study of the court in the aftermath of the country's 2001–2002 crisis, this article focuses on the particular forms and documentary practices Supreme Court justices use to review a few select cases and then discard the majority without explanation. Analyzing these practices sheds light on the tensions that exist among different imaginaries of judicial adjudication and the court's role in the native legal field. In this context, this article argues that exclusion operates not only as a tool of docket management and control but also as a way to shape judicial authority and legitimacy in contemporary Argentina.