The political right to suit the constitutional amendments: weakness and strengths

Abstract

The “acción pública de inconstitucionalidad” is, in Colombia, a constitutional writ and a political right. That is the way to present a constitutional question about a constitutional amendment act before the Constitutional Court. However, those suits have a complex constitutional method. The main question of this article is if the design of the process is an obstacle for the citizens to control the constitutional amendments and to exercise a political right. The hypothesis is that the established requirements are reasonable in an educated society, but Colombia is not one of them. Nevertheless, the exigent method to present a constitutional suit could be convenient. It could promote social organization and a major interest in the legislative process. In that sense, the requirements could be a way to improve the political control over the branches of power. To demonstrate this hypothesis, the text uses normative and jurisprudential analysis as well as Political Science concepts. The article starts with a brief history of the “Acción Pública de Inconstitucionalidad”, its political consequences, and the structure of the process to demonstrate that the method to present a suit is reasonable and convenient to exercise political and juridical control