There were several demonstrations by the Supreme Court of Justice and the Council of State, the highest instances in their respective jurisdictions, in the sense of emphasizing that the illicit sentence is not binding, provided it is considered non-existent. Of course, things that pass through evident lawlessness are not binding, “nor can they bind.” This criterion is replicated in other figures of the national legal system, within which the figure of the “unconstitutionality exception” prevails.
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It embodies a faculty attributed to the authorities, mainly to the judges, and takes the form of a duty, since as our Constitutional Court has well established, it cannot fail to declare itself in cases in which a clear contradiction is recognized between a provision of a lower hierarchical level and norms constitutional.
Therefore, it will be imperative to resort to it when the lower norm that one intends to apply is contrary to higher canons, even if and with all that there has been no ruling on its unconstitutionality, since otherwise the manifest irregularity could not be averted.
With this spurious decree, the government obfuscates the legal frameworks for peace at will, breaks into judicial independence, and undermines judicial acts issued in accordance with the law.
The foregoing prefaces the jurisdictional position that the application of the recently issued decree with which the Government instituted the so-called ‘Intersectoral Commission for the promotion of peace, reconciliation and citizen participation’ could assume, which is nothing more than creating a parallel court of justice within the Executive, in order to crown the objective (or obsession) of freeing the members of the so-called front line “at any cost” (and therefore claiming to wear makeup in another way).
In order to give things their proper name, and not give them improper nuances, with this spurious decree the Government obfuscates the legal frameworks of the peace at will, violates judicial independence and undermines judicial acts issued in accordance with the law.
In light of all this, as has been done several times, the Excellence in Justice Corporation cannot help but express once again its firm rejection of this affront to Justice, and in turn ratify its solidarity with the bailiffs , in particular to those who have adopted the measures which rightly led to the detention of people whose acts of vandalism the country retains vivid memory and expects the declaration of the due sanctions from the forgotten victims.
Well, with respect to what has been said, it should be noted that without judicial autonomy there is no democracy, therefore this platform appeals for respect for this principle, and for respect in this sense for the constitutional parameters, so to speak, if this is hosted in the seat within governmental jurisdiction, that this Constitution “has not ceased to exist.”
For this reason it is now up to the judges to guarantee this constitutional prevalence, and for their examination in the face of an illegitimate act, to specify here the aforementioned figure of the exception of unconstitutionality. Which will undoubtedly be a timely “judicial vaccine” to avoid the chaos to which we are called. Also, because, as the president of the Superior Court of Bogota, magistrate Hugo Alexander Ríos clearly underlined, “no illegal detention” took place here.
A voice that has been hand in hand with the defense of judicial institutionality carried out by other actors and officials of the Section, and which has been joined in the exercise of his powers by the president of our Supreme Court of Justice, the magistrate Aroldo Quiroz ; the nation’s attorney general, the nation’s attorney general, and the ombudsman.
HERNANDO HERRERA MARKET
(Read all of Hernando Herrera Mercado’s columns on EL TIEMPO, here)
