Antiprocesalism in the Colombian Legal System

• Autor: Bejarano Ricaurte, Ana
• Formato: artículo
• Fecha de Publicación: 2019
• Institución: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
• Repositorio: Revistas - Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
• Lenguaje: español
• OAI Identifier: oai:ojs.pkp.sfu.ca:article/21227
• Enlace del recurso: http://revistas.pucp.edu.pe/index.php/derechoysociedad/article/view/21227
• Nivel de acceso: acceso abierto
• Materia: Antiprocesalism; “illegal decisions don’t bound the judge”; judicial system; judge; court order; invalidation of procedures; clash of Courts; Colombian Constitutional Court; Colombian Supreme Court; Colombian Council of State; suspension of Procedures; Antiprocesalismo; “el auto ilegal no ata”; Sistema Judicial; auto; juez; nulidad procesal; choque de trenes; Corte Constitucional colombiana; Corte Suprema de Justicia de Colombia; Consejo de Estado de Colombia; preclusión

Since the beginning of the 20th century the Colombian legal system has displayed a theory called ‘antiprocesalism’, according to which judges are not bound by their own decisions if they are so mistaken, so they can be considered as illegal. When this happens, judges can ignore those decisions. There is currently no consensus regarding the practical application of this theory, whether the judge can automatically ignore its own decisions, or whether the mistake must be pointed out by the parties. There is also discussion regarding when can those decisions be ignored related to their enforceability and if this theory can be applied to any type of judicial decision. This uncertainty has produced the irregular application of this theory, sometimes even damaging the right to due process, specially coming from lowercircuit judges. Still, current and past decisions from the nation’s highest courts present some viable criteria for the safe and uniform application of this theory in legal practice. Those criteria are studied and presented in this essay.