Rights
1991 Constitution with the tutela and a strong Constitutional Court
The 1991 Constitution created the Corte Constitucional and the acción de tutela, a rapid remedy any person may bring before any judge to protect a fundamental right. A tutela must be decided within ten days and the Constitutional Court selectively reviews decisions, producing an influential rights jurisprudence including the bloque de constitucionalidad doctrine that incorporates human-rights treaties.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — Unitary republic with national constitutional jurisdiction
- Deadline — Tutela: decided by the first-instance judge within 10 days
- Deadline — Appeal of a tutela: three days to file
- Deadline — Acción de cumplimiento and popular actions have their own terms
Governing law
- Constitución PolÃtica de Colombia (1991) (art. 86)
- Decreto 2591/1991tutela procedure
- Ley 1437/2011 - CPACA
In practice
The tutela is the defining institution of Colombian public law: it is filed without a lawyer, before any judge, and its ten-day decision requirement makes it dramatically faster than ordinary litigation, which is why it is used for everything from health-care access to due-process complaints. The Constitutional Court's structural rulings, such as the declaration of an unconstitutional state of affairs, have driven policy change in prisons and displacement.