Criminal
COIP consolidated criminal law and procedure in one code
The Código Orgánico Integral Penal (COIP) of 2014 unified substantive criminal law, procedure and sentence execution in a single instrument, replacing three separate codes. Procedure is accusatorial and oral, led by the Fiscalía General del Estado. Recent security emergencies have prompted repeated states of exception and military support to policing.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — National criminal code and procedure
- Deadline — Detainee before a judge within 24 hours
- Deadline — Preventive detention: maximum six months for offences up to five years, one year for graver offences
- Deadline — Instruction phase: up to 90 days, extendable in specific cases
Governing law
- Código Orgánico Integral Penal2014
- Código Orgánico de la Función Judicial
In practice
Consolidating substance, procedure and execution into the COIP is unusual and makes Ecuadorian criminal law comparatively easy to navigate from a single text. The COIP also codified offences reflecting the 2008 Constitution, including crimes against nature and femicide, and set out the rules for indigenous justice coordination where a community exercises its own jurisdiction.