Audiencias Públicas y su Impacto en las Sentencias del Tribunal Constitucional Chileno

This paper analyses public hearings in the Chilean constitutional court. Public hearings—which open the constitutional process to civil society—are a recently incorporated institution in Latin American constitutional jurisdictions that lack a sufficient theoretical assessment. According to the literature, the aim of public hearings is to expand deliberation within constitutional jurisdictions and, in this way, democratize them. This research analyzes the impact of public hearings on the Chilean constitutional court's judgments. The Chilean case is studied in light of the research regarding Latin American experiences. The objective is to determine whether public hearings have impacted the way in which judges ground their judgments.