Política y justicia en Uruguay: el poder de la Suprema Corte de Justicia (1990-2018)

What is the role of the Uruguayan Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) in the political system? The article analyzes the role of the SCJ as a political actor, studying its formal power and its effective exercise in the control of the constitutionality of laws. The research shows that SCJ design grants medium levels of autonomy, but a limited scope of authority. Although the SCJ is formally not very powerful, and there have been no changes in its institutional design, in recent years it has become more active, either because of the increase in the demand coming from society or because of the responses of the Court, whose sentences challenge, to a greater extent than before, the decisions of the elected powers. These elements are indicative of an increase in the effective power of the SCJ in the political system. From this perspective, the article contributes to the study of judicial politics in Uruguay, an issue unexplored in the Uruguayan political science