Gabriel Pereira reviews El Descubrimiento De La Ley: Cómo El Derecho Se Convirtió En Una Herramienta Para Hacer Política. By Catalina Smulovitz. Siglo XXI, 2025. ISBN 978-987-801-435-7.
In El Descubrimiento De La Ley, the political scientist Catalina Smulovitz offers a sophisticated and timely account of how law has become a central instrument of political struggle in Argentina, with implications that extend across Latin America. As the author is one of the region’s most respected scholars of politics and law, which draws on decades of empirical observation and theoretical reflection, the result is a work that challenges readers to reconsider the place of law in democratic practice and illuminates how legal institutions can be mobilized for both accountability and power.
At the heart of the book lies the idea that law should not be viewed as a neutral framework for adjudicating disputes, but rather as a resource that political actors actively deploy in pursuit of their goals. While the instrumentalization of law is hardly an unknown phenomenon, Smulovitz unpacks how this process has developed in Argentina and how its dynamics resonate across Latin American democracies. The book’s title, “El Descubrimiento De La Ley” or “Discovery of Law”, provides a hint to the reader. She traces the historical emergence of law as a political tool, maps the strategies through which diverse actors mobilize legal mechanisms, and evaluates the broader consequences for institutional stability and democratic legitimacy.
While the instrumentalization of law is hardly an unknown phenomenon, Smulovitz unpacks how this process has developed in Argentina and how its dynamics resonate across Latin American democracies.
Smulovitz’s option is to organize the argument thematically, which allows her to weave together historical analysis, institutional examination, and contemporary political dynamics. Early chapters explore Argentina’s legal evolution, highlighting how the judiciary and constitutional debates moved from a peripheral to a central arena of politics. Later chapters shift focus to the actors who engage with legal mechanisms: political elites, grassroots movements, and civil society organizations. Here, Smulovitz demonstrates how litigation, judicial activism, and constitutional reform can become tactical weapons in broader conflicts over power and legitimacy.
One of the book’s most valuable features is its capacity to connect Argentina’s experience with broader Latin American patterns. Smulovitz shows that while Argentina serves as her primary case, the mechanisms she describes — the judicialization of politics, the mobilization of rights claims, the politicization of constitutional law — are visible throughout the region. This comparative dimension makes the book relevant well beyond Argentina, positioning it as an essential reference for anyone interested in the intersection of law and democratic development in Latin America.
Importantly, the book avoids simplistic dichotomies. Smulovitz demonstrates that legal mobilization can yield both constructive and destructive outcomes: it can strengthen accountability and expand rights, but it can also heighten polarization and erode institutional coherence. As she puts it,
“This discovery and the growing use of judicial instruments would have numerous consequences for the functioning and political dynamics of the new democracy” (13).
Crucially, these consequences are not one-sided but inherently ambivalent:
“All these effects are not mutually exclusive and may occur simultaneously, which is why assessments of the consequences of judicialization are often ambiguous” (38).
This balanced approach underscores the ambivalence of law as a political resource and invites readers to grapple with its dual nature. Smulovitz demonstrates that legal mobilization can yield both constructive and destructive outcomes: it can strengthen accountability and expand rights, but it can also heighten polarization and erode institutional coherence.
There are, however, certain limitations. The thematic organization, while elegant, sometimes comes at the expense of empirical depth. Specific episodes in Argentine political history are introduced only briefly, and some readers may wish for more detailed engagement with critical junctures, such as moments of judicial intervention during constitutional crises. Moreover, although the book gestures toward regional parallels, the comparative analysis could have been developed more systematically. Another point of critique concerns the balance between breadth and focus. By covering a wide array of actors and mechanisms, the book risks diluting the fine-grained analysis of particular dynamics. The trade-off is understandable : breadth underscores the pervasiveness of law as a political tool. At the same time, it might leave certain aspects underexplored. Readers seeking detailed case reconstructions may therefore find the account more suggestive than exhaustive.
Despite these caveats, El Descubrimiento De La Ley makes a substantial contribution to the study of democracy and law. Smulovitz writes with analytical precision and clarity, guiding readers through complex interactions between institutions and actors without lapsing into abstraction. Her approach bridges legal studies and political science, making the book relevant across disciplines and accessible to a wide audience. Thus, for democratic theory and comparative politics, the book offers a powerful reminder that institutions are not static but are continuously reshaped through contestation. For Latin American scholarship, it provides a framework for understanding how law mediates political struggles in contexts marked by weak institutions, high polarization, and persistent demands for accountability. For the readership of the Review of Democracy, it enriches current debates on democratic resilience and backsliding by highlighting the legal dimension of political conflict.
Smulovitz writes with analytical precision and clarity, guiding readers through complex interactions between institutions and actors without lapsing into abstraction.
By the end, it is clear that Catalina Smulovitz has produced a landmark study that reframes how we think about the role of law in democratic life. Grounded in Argentina yet illuminating broader Latin American dynamics, El Descubrimiento De La Ley demonstrates that legal arenas are not merely sites of adjudication but also fields of political struggle. The book’s analytical rigor, thematic coherence, and comparative insights ensure that it will remain an indispensable reference for scholars, practitioners, and engaged citizens concerned with the uncertain future of democracy.
Gabriel Pereira is is editor at the Review of Democracy.
