Judicial Politics in Mexico: Understanding the Legal Culture of Judges

This chapter presents the theoretical discussion that has emerged in Mexico, as well as in other parts of the world, regarding judicial politics. It specifically explores judicial behavior and the incentives that judges have for their decision making. One of the explanations for judicial behavior is based on ideational theories, emphasizing that judges’ ideas play a crucial role in decision making. While their decisions are grounded in the law, they are also influenced by their legal culture. Judges shape their ideas throughout their professional trajectory. This chapter contributes to advancing the studies of ideational theories of judicial behavior. To achieve this, it operationalizes the concept of legal culture based on three fields of study: judicial politics, the sociology of law, and the philosophy of law.