BACKLASH AND SAME-SEX MARRIAGE IN MEXICO: WHAT IS THE LAW OF THE LAND?

Using the process of recognition of same-sex marriage in Mexico as a case study, I claim that specific institutional features of a constitutional culture diminish the chances of backlash against supreme court’s rulings. This paper identifies two features of the Mexican constitutional culture that can explain why the Mexican Supreme Court ruling was not followed by backlash on this highly contested issue. First, the Mexican approach to judicial review limits the reach of the Court’s interpretation of the Constitution, and therefore restricts the role of judges in altering social realities. Second, due to operational dysfunctionalities, the Court is a week institution vis a vis other political actors and for that reason judicial decision-making goes unnoticed and uncontested. In doing so, this paper contributes to the recent discussions on law and politics in Latin American legal scholarship.