Judicial reform in Ecuador is best summarized as a push-and-pull between different regimes, with every new president using their electoral mandate to reset both the judiciary’s membership and its structure. The continual reforms are motivated by a desire to end corruption and restore public trust in the judiciary, as well as to combat real problems facing the country, including violent crime. However, it is the needs, whims, and swings of electoral politics that have contributed the most to the changing structures of the country over the last 15 or so years. Charting the back-and-forth of these reforms reveals novel institutional design but mixed outcomes for judicial independence, rule of law, and successful anti-corruption work.

President Rafael Correa, noted in the international community for his authoritarian tendencies, made significant progress in increasing and tracking the efficiency of the judiciary, as well as expanding its scale to increase access to it, even as he replaced virtually every member of it with actors loyal to his regime. Correa also oversaw the creation and implementation of a new constitution in Ecuador. This constitution provides for a 5-branch structure of government and is among the most novel reforms seen. Correa was immensely popular within Ecuador, despite his corruption, and was seen as standing up for Ecuadorian interests against outside influences, most notably Western ones.

When his deputy Lenin Moreno became President in 2017, he once again replaced members of the judiciary with his own people and altered significant portions of Correa’s reforms to make them more democratic. Moreno also oversaw the corruption investigation of Correa, who has been convicted of bribery and is legally barred from running for president again. Despite Moreno’s substantive improvements to rule of law, he was hugely unpopular and did not win a second term in office. Newly elected President Lasso has overseen a successful use of the process set up by previous administrations to renew three of the judges on the Constitutional Court, but he has also promised to hold yet another referendum to renew the judiciary in the style of both of his predecessors. This pattern of constant renewal makes it difficult to assess the long- term success of any one policy implemented in Ecuador.