El rol de la Suprema Corte de Justicia ante la judicialización de la salud en Uruguay. Aportes para la descripción de la cultura jurídica uruguayaThe Role of the Supreme Court of Justice in the judicialization of healthcare in Uruguay. Contributions to the description of Uruguayan legal culture

Abstract

Abstract In the last 15 years, Uruguay has witnessed a process of judicialization of health care, carried out through litigation by hundreds of plaintiffs demanding access to high-cost medicines (HCMs) and challenging the constitutionality of laws regulating them. The case of Uruguay is interesting and informative because judicialization is occurring in a country with a comparatively robust health system and a traditionally deferential Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ). The study contributes to the literature on legal culture by examining a largely unexplored case, based on an analysis of the role played by the SCJ in reviewing the constitutionality of laws regulating access to HCMs. The systematic study of the Court’s conceptions reveals the existence of three stages in terms of the (un)constitutionality of the challenged regulation and the nature of the arguments invoked. These shifts coincide with the frequent changes in the composition of the Court and suggest the coexistence of different legal cultures.