In 2019 and 2020, the Peruvian government amended its Constitution and passed an organic law to create the Junta Nacional de Justicia (“JNJ”), a new independent body charged with the vetting of new and sitting judges. The JNJ has since begun conducting contests for judgeships and has removed or sanctioned judges at almost every level of the judiciary.

Although the reform was born out of outrage for the corruption of an insulated (i.e., not democratically accountable) judiciary, the reforms themselves do not appear to substantively support democracy nor do they undermine judicial independence in favor of executive consolidation. Instead, these reforms create a body very similar to its predecessor, the Consejo Nacional de la Magistratura (“CNM”), with two major differences—transparency and the makeup of the new JNJ itself.

Though it is still too early to say whether the reforms are largely successful, they do seem to be novel in their approach to the vetting of judges and deviate from other vetting bodies created at the same time in the Balkans (notably in Albania and Kosovo). All in all, the JNJ may be an important step for the Peruvian judiciary to root out corruption and create a more independent system, though the potential for abuse remains.