The Coase theorem and the Colombian Constitutional Court’s jurisprudence

Abstract

This paper analyzes the relationship that is present between the jurisprudence of the Colombian Constitutional Court (regarding the writ of tutela) during the twenty years that the Colombian Constitution has been in legal force, on the one hand, and the Coase theorem, proposed by the Nobel laureate Ronald H. Coase, on the other hand. The paper states that the Colombian Constitutional Court, although implicitly and without noticing, when considering efficiency as a criterion for deciding at least some of its cases and allocating rights that facilitates transactions between the parties to the lawsuit, has performed an analysis similar to the one that Coase explains in his paper “The Problem of Social Cost”.