The Constitution and Rule of Law in Colombia

Abstract

There is generally a gap between constitutional law and social practice, and in Colombia, there are peculiarities despite similarities and common elements with other Latin American countries. Colombia has experienced an internal armed conflict since the mid-sixties, but like other countries in the region, lacks strong State institutions. There is a coexistence between formal civilian and democratic tradition with a tendency in practice to violate norms, rules and rights. In the early nineties, several internal and external factors were crystallized, which led to a new constitution (1991) with a mission to form a peace process. This work is framed in a political science and sociology discussion on the performative capacity of the law, based on the concept of rule of law and its relation to the institutional weaknesses (Barros 2003; Levitsky and Murillo 2009). This report describes domestic and international factors that contextualize the Colombian constitutional change. Processes of exacerbation of violence of the past five governments are exposed (current administration excluded) as a pattern of dependence, which offsets the performative capacity of the new constitution. Finally, there is an exploration of the relationship between law and social practices in the conflict, discussing how they have influenced democracy in Colombia.