The translation of court decisions as communication: a study of South American constitutional courts

Abstract

In unilingual states, translating constitutional court decisions is a voluntary, non-binding practice. Such disseminative translations aim to communicate jurisprudence beyond national borders. In South America, only Brazil’s Supremo Tribunal Federal and Colombia’s Corte Constitucional have adopted this approach. This article analyzes their respective translation practices at three levels: within the South American legal space, within their national contexts, and through the specific modalities by which their decisions are translated.