La reforma de la Ley Orgánica del Tribunal Constitucional

Abstract

This article analyses the general significance of the latest reform to the Constitutional Court Act (Ley Orgánica del Tribunal Constitucional) and the changes it brings into the regulation of constitutional proceedings, how the court is run internally and the legal charter of both the court and its members. Proceedings that used to be the exclusive power of the Plenary can now be deferred to the court rooms in most cases, as can intervention of the parties in the a quo legal proceedings in matters of inconstitutionality. The admission of amparo appeals is made more objective, as they will not be admitted in any case in which rights have been infringed but only if the case is of «special constitutional importance». The reform thus transforms the previous model of amparo appeals, which no longer give protection under tutelage but now protect by providing a control. The indirect appeal for protection is also reformed, so that it becomes a figure in which inconstitutionality is questioned by the court itself. And along this same line of reducing and simplifying the protection proceedings under amparo appeals for constitutional protection, the reform orders that when such protection is not admitted, it is sufficient for the court to argue grounds of «non-compliance with requirements», and the court rooms are empowered to delegate cases that merely require application of doctrine to its departments for ruling. Other changes include the measures for the court to be able to annul acts by any branch of public power that undermine its supreme jurisdiction, as well as new legal provisions regarding the mandate and election of the president and vice-president.