Political Constitution of Colombia (1991)

The administration of justice is a public function. Its decisions are independent. Its proceedings shall be public and permanent with the exceptions established by statute, and substantive law shall prevail in them. Legal limits shall be diligently observed and failure to apply them shall be sanctioned. The functioning of the judiciary shall be decentralized and autonomous.

The right of any individual to have access to the administration of justice is guaranteed. An Act shall stipulate in which cases this may be done without the representation of counsel.

In their decisions, the judges are bound exclusively by the rule of law.

Fairness, jurisprudence, and the general principles of law and doctrine are the auxiliary criteria of judicial proceedings.

The Magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice and the Council of State will be elected with their respective body, with prior public call, from a list of ten eligible people sent by the Judicial Government Council after a public call was made according to the law and by the Administration of the Judicial Branch.

In the set of selection processes for the Magistrate of the Supreme Court of Justice and the Council of State the equilibrium criteria will be followed among those people that come from professional practice, from the Judicial Branch, and from academia.

The Supreme Court of Justice and the Council of State will determine the voting formula and the time period in which they should elect the Magistrates that form part of that body.

In order to be a judge of the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court of Justice, or the Council of State, the following requirements must be met:

To be Colombian by birth and a citizen in good standing.

To be a lawyer.

Not to have been charged by a court sentence to imprisonment, except for political or similar crimes.

Having worked, during fifteen years, in positions within the Judicial Branch or the Public Ministry, or having exercised, with good record, during the same period, the profession of attorney or an academic position in a university in judicial disciplines in officially known institutions. For the rank of Magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice and the Council of State, the academic position in the university should be in a judicial discipline related with the area of expertise of the Magistrate office.

In order to be a judge of these courts it shall not be necessary to be engaged in a legal career.

The judges of the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court of Justice, and of the Council of State shall be elected for a period of eight years. They cannot be re-elected and shall remain in office as long as they display good behavior, perform satisfactorily and have not reached the age of mandatory retirement.

The Supreme Court of Justice is the highest court of ordinary jurisdiction and shall comprise an uneven number of judges determined by an Act. The latter shall divide the Court into Houses, shall assign to each of them the matters that it has to take cognizance of separately, and determine those matters that must be heard by the entire bench.

The Supreme Court of Justice has the following powers:

To act as a court of cassation.

To judge the President of the Republic or whoever replaces him/her and the senior officials covered by Article 174 for any punishable deed imputed to them, in accordance with Article 175, paragraphs 2 and 3.

To investigate and try members of the Congress.

Judge, with prior indictment from the Attorney General of the Nation, the Deputy Attorney General of the Nation, or its delegates from district attorney units before the Supreme Court of Justice, the Vice President of the Republic, the Ministers of the Cabinet, the General Prosecutor of the Nation, the Ombudsman, the agents of the Public Ministry before the Court, and the Council of State and before the tribunals; the Directors of the Administrative Departments, the Controller General of the Republic, the Ambassadors and the Chiefs of Diplomatic or Consular Missions, the Governors, the Magistrate of Tribunals, and the Generals and Admirals of the Public Force, for punishable acts that are imputed.

To take cognizance of all contentious issues of diplomatic personnel accredited before the national government in cases provided by international law.

To draft its own rules of procedure.

To exercise other powers stipulated by an Act.

When the officials mentioned above have ceased holding office, these provisions shall apply only for punishable offenses related to the functions that they used to exercise.

The Council of State shall be composed of an uneven number of judges determined by statute. The Council shall be broken down into Houses and sections to separate its jurisdictional functions from the others assigned to it by the Constitution and the statute.

An Act shall stipulate the functions of each of the Houses and sections, the number of judges that comprises them, and their internal organization.

The powers of the Council of State are as follows:

To exercise the functions of supreme contentious administrative court in accordance with the rules stipulated by an Act.

To take cognizance of invalid decrees issued by the national government and held unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court.

To act as the supreme consultative body of the government in matters of administration, whose opinion must mandatorily be heard in all cases determined by the Constitution and the statutes.

In cases of the transit of foreign troops across Colombia’s national territory, the stationing or transit of foreign warships or aircraft in the waters or territory or airspace of the nation, the government must first seek the opinion of the Council of State.

To prepare and present proposals amending the Constitution and other bills.

To take cognizance of cases regarding the loss of the investiture of congressmen in accordance with the Constitution and statute.

To draft its own rules of procedure and exercise other functions determined by an Act.

To rule on petitions for the annulment of elections subject to the rules of competence established by statute.

It is a condition for the admissibility of electoral disputes directed against the act of popular election which are based on causes for annulment due to irregularities in the voting process and the counting of the votes before the administrative jurisdiction that they are submitted to the review of the competent administrative authority headed by the National Election Commission before the proclamation of the election results

The jurisdiction of the contentious administrative apparatus may temporarily be suspended for the causes, and following the requirements, established by statute because of the effects of administrative measures that may be subject to challenge by the judiciary.

The Constitutional Court shall be composed of an uneven number of members determined by statute. The makeup of the court shall take into account the need to select judges belonging to various specialised jurisdictions.

The judges of the Constitutional Court shall be elected by the Senate of the Republic for single terms of eight years from lists presented to it by the President of the Republic, the Supreme Court of Justice, and the Council of State.

The judges of the Constitutional Court are not eligible for reelection.

Those who, during the year previous to the election, had exercised the functions of Cabinet minister or judges of the Supreme Court of Justice or of the Council of State are not eligible for election.

The safeguarding of the integrity and supremacy of the Constitution is entrusted to the Constitutional Court in the strict and precise terms of this article. For such a purpose, it shall fulfill the following functions:

Decide on the petitions of unconstitutionality brought by citizens against measures amending the Constitution, no matter what their origin, exclusively for errors of procedure in their formation.

Decide, prior to a popular expression of opinion, on the constitutionality of the call for a referendum or a constituent assembly to amend the Constitution, exclusively for errors of procedure in their formation.

Decide on the constitutionality of referendums about laws and popular consultations and plebiscites of a national scope, in case of these last ones exclusively for errors of procedure in their convocation and implementation.

Decide on the petitions of unconstitutionality brought by citizens against statutes, both for their substantive content as well as for errors of procedure in their formation.

Decide on the petitions of unconstitutionality brought by citizens against decrees with the force of law issued by the government on the basis of Article 150, numeral 10, and Article 341 of the Constitution for their substantive content as well as for errors of procedure in their formation.

Decide on the exceptions provided for in Article 137 of the Constitution.

Decide definitively on the constitutionality of the legislative decrees issued by the government on the basis of Articles 212, 213, and 215 of the Constitution.

Decide definitively on the constitutionality of the bills opposed by the government as unconstitutional and of proposed statutory bills, both on account of their substantive content as well as for errors of procedure in their formation.

Revise, in the form determined by statute, the judicial decisions connected with the protection of constitutional rights.

To take a final decision on the execution of international treaties and the statutes approving them. To this end, the government shall submit them to the Court within six days following the adoption of the ratifying statute. Any citizen may intervene to defend or challenge their constitutionality. Should the Court declare them constitutional, the government may proceed to the exchange of notes; in the contrary case they shall not be ratified. When one or several provisions of a multilateral treaty are declared unenforceable by the Constitutional Court, the President of the Republic may declare consent, formulating the pertinent reservation.

Resolve the conflicts and competences that occur between the different jurisdictions.

Enact its own regulations.

When the Court finds an amendable error in the procedures of formation subject to its control, it shall order their return to the authority which issued them so that, if possible, that authority should correct the observed flaw. Once the error is corrected, it shall proceed to decide on the validity of the measure.

The processes promoted before the Constitutional Court in the matters referred to on this score shall be regulated by an Act in accordance with the following provisions:

Any citizen may implement the public actions provided in the preceding Article and intervene as challenger or defender of the provisions submitted to control in processes promoted by others as well as in those cases where no public action has occurred.

The General Prosecutor of the Nation shall intervene in all the processes.

Actions to correct errors in form lapse within a year starting from the publication of the said act.

Ordinarily, the Court shall have 60 days to decide, and the General Prosecutor of the Nation 30 days within which to give his/her opinion.

In the processes referred to in numeral 7 of the previous Article, the ordinary deadlines shall be reduced to a third and the missing of the deadline shall constitute cause for a misdemeanor to be sanctioned according to statute.

The decisions of the Court while exercising legal checks bars double jeopardy.

No authority may reproduce the substance of a juridical measure declared invalid for fundamental reasons while the provisions that served to challenge the ordinary provision and the Constitution remain.

The Constitutional Court shall notify the President of the Republic or the President of Congress, depending on the case, of the initiation of any process seeking to examine the constitutionality of provisions stipulated by them, respectively. Such notification shall not delay the deadlines of the process.

The government may not provide employment to the judges of the Constitutional Court during the period that they exercise their function or in the year following their retirement.

The authorities of the indigenous [Indian] peoples may exercise their jurisdictional functions within their territorial jurisdiction in accordance with their own laws and procedures as long as these are not contrary to the Constitution and the laws of the Republic. An Act shall establish the forms of coordination of this special jurisdiction with the national judicial system.

Only sentences handed down definitively in judicial trials qualify as a criminal record or a violation in all legal matters.