Abstract

ZULUAGA-GIL, Ricardo. A CONSTITUTION APPROXIMATION WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO COLOMBIA. Vniversitas [online]. , pp.31-52. ISSN 0041-9060.

This article describes one of the main problems of constitutionalism in Colombia: the persistence of constitutional instability, and the way in which this instability, representing a very common tradition in Latin American legal systems, is far from harmonizing with the basic tenets of constitutionalism, as with the institutional developments of societies showing better indicators of economic and democratic performance. This paper underscores the intimate connection existing between this fact and the technical inconsistencies of the 1991 Colombian Constitution, which did not create the adequate mechanisms needed to protect the country's constitutional pact. In this way, an opportunity was created for those judges deciding constitutional issues to establish limits on the power of constitutional reform, through the theory of the substitution of the Constitution.

Keywords : Constitutional reform; Constitutional supremacy; Substitution of the Constitution; Constituent power; Limits on constitutional reform.

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