* Associate professor away from political science, College or university off Main Florida, and you will guest specialist from the Chr. Michelsen Institute, Bergen, Norway. This really is a modified kind of a newspaper demonstrated during the “Process of law and Marginalized: Relative Skills” workshop within Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago, Chile, . The author really wants to give thanks to Juan Carlos Rodriguez Cordero, Roberto Gargarella, Siri Gloppen, Rachel Sieder, Kerstin Hamann, and also the We•Scam writers and you may editors. Email:
Mention
Bruce Meters. Wilson, Claiming individual rights by way of a constitutional courtroom: This new example of gays from inside the Costa Rica, Global Diary out-of Constitutional Laws, Regularity 5, Situation 2, , Users 242–257, Navbar Lookup Filter out Mobile Enter keyword Look Navbar Search Filter out Enter into keywords Research
Abstract
From inside the 1989, a newly composed Constitutional Courtroom (Sala IV) immediately turned an extremely productive judge, ending over 160 years of Costa Rican official laziness. This new magistrates’ strategies breathed new lease of life for the Constitution, finished official deference so you’re able to decided to go with officials, and consequently transformed Costa Rican governmental life. At the same time, brand new Sala IV magistrates believed this new role regarding guardians out of constitutional rights, offering rise from what can be referred to as a rights wave. This article falls out white with the sudden benefit of the forty-year-old Constitutional file through a study of the organization laws and regulations and you can tips not as much as that the the fresh new Judge works, plus it explores brand new success and you may downfalls of a single of your own country’s most marginalized organizations when you look at the seeking to protection of its constitutional rights in the Court.
Addition
Inside the 1999, Costa Ricans notable its Constitution’s fiftieth anniversary. step 1 The newest value of your own Constitution on these 50 ages are frequently put into several line of symptoms, before and after the newest 1989 creation of an effective constitutional chamber regarding the newest Finest Courtroom (Sala Constitucional otherwise Sala IV). dos Prior to 1989, brand new constitutionality from lawmakers’ tips is actually rarely confronted, and you can politicians noticed the “ability to legislate try pure,” allowing them to consistently ignore constitutional restrictions to their powers. 3 But not, the thorough private and social legal rights conditions of your Constitution was in fact rarely managed by Supreme Judge. cuatro Those things out-of Sala IV magistrates has breathed new lease of life on Constitution and you may transformed Costa Rican government, 5 since Sala IV have consistently read and you may definitely felt like individual liberties says. It is commonly arranged one, once the 1989, Costa Rica has received an official wave- more especially, good “rights” revolution-who’s encouraged someone and you will communities out-of just about any field away from area to make towards the Court to own redress. six
Since magistrates of one’s Supreme Court in earlier times deferred to your prominent twigs out of regulators, they now act as productive guardians of Composition. Overall Sala IV magistrate, Eduardo Sancho, put it: “It is important knowing new Sala IV never as an enthusiastic facilities designed to feel on provider of your own government department, however, a bit the reverse: to protect this new legal rights of men and women.” seven The newest magistrates possess regularly and decisively influenced from inside the cases of individual liberties states, appear to in support of politically weakened and socially ines Sala IV conclusion for the cases recorded by a few of the most weakly organized, politically and you will socially marginalized members of Costa Rican society. Just before doing so, they talks about the new official institutional framework pre and post the new creation away from Sala IV to explain brand new origins of your Court’s increased judicial activism and you can, in particular, the fresh renewed benefits presumed from the constitutional arrangements since this new chamber was at procedure.
1. Out-of judicial laziness to help you official activism
On the earliest 160 many years of freedom, Costa Rica’s Ultimate Legal behaved like many almost every other Latin-american courts, operating on the assumption the strategies of your own preferred twigs out of regulators was constitutional unless they certainly were egregiously and you may naturally if not. 8 Such as other countries in the region, Costa Rica’s constitutions included bills out-of rights which were largely forgotten and you can, more frequently, only “parchment barriers, useless up against governmental fuel.” 9 For decades there clearly was considerable dispute one of many twigs regarding government towards judicial comment. It wasn’t up until 1938 that the Ultimate Judge founded the “official supremacy for the constitutional issues.” 10 However,, as in most of with the rest of Latin The united states, the brand new constitutional promises out of personal liberties afforded absolutely nothing protection from the caprices from political professionals, particularly for marginalized people. 11