This paper describes and explains the variation in the quality of judicial decisions in sixteen Supreme Courts of Latin America. Through a mixed methods, based in a OLS model and three case studies, the paper shows that the external judicial independence, judicial corruption and others endogenous variables related with the background of the justices, explaining the differences in the quality of judicial decisions in the highest courts of Latin America. The paper is based in expert´s surveys and in the file research of the curriculum vitae of each supreme justices of the sixteen countries analyzed.
