Independence or control? Social Rights and the Executive’s efforts to control the Colombian Constitutional Court

Authors

  • ALBERT NOGUERA FERNÁNDEZ

Keywords:

Constitutional Court, social rights, judicial activism.

Abstract

Since its creation in 1992, the Colombian Constitutional Court, composed mostly of clearly progressive profile judges, has been a real «stone in the shoe» for the Executive and its neo-liberal policies. The Court has, on many occasions, stated unconstitutional many laws and legal acts of the executive power and its cancellation, and forced the Administration to ensure the social rights of certain sectors of society, which has involved an active intervention of the Court in the economic policies of the State. This has aroused the anger of the government, that has tried, several times, to push for constitutional reform to eliminate the Court or deprive it of its functions. The last of these episodes, we find in the efforts of the Executive towards the recomposition of the Court with conservative judges of its confidence. Finally, it looks, like we will see in this work, in this last presidential period 2006-2010 President Uribe will be able to achieve his goal.

Published

2009-02-26

Issue

Section

ARTICLES