Colombia

Legal tradition

Colombia belongs to the civil law tradition. A civil-law system transformed by the 1991 Constitution, which created a Constitutional Court whose activism has few parallels anywhere. Its acción de tutela lets any person obtain a decision on a fundamental right within ten days, and it generates hundreds of thousands of filings a year. The Court also developed the estado de cosas inconstitucional, a structural declaration used to order reform of prisons and of care for the displaced.

How power is divided

Unitary but markedly decentralised. Thirty-two departments and the Capital District have elected governors, mayors and assemblies with taxing and spending powers, and indigenous territories exercise their own jurisdiction under Article 246, but legislative competence stays with the national Congress.

Where law comes from

Constitution and the bloque de constitucionalidad

Ratified human-rights treaties share constitutional rank.

Statutes

Statutory laws on fundamental rights require an absolute majority and prior constitutional review.

Codes

Civil Code, Commercial Code, Substantive Labour Code, General Code of Procedure (2012).

Precedent

Constitutional Court doctrine binds; departure requires express and reasoned justification.

The legal profession

A five-year degree, a period of practice or a monograph, and a professional card (tarjeta profesional) issued by the Consejo Superior de la Judicatura, which also disciplines lawyers. Advocacy in most matters requires a licensed abogado, but the tutela is a deliberate exception: it may be filed by anyone, in writing or orally, without a lawyer.