Legal proceedings against the State and its defense by Colombia

Abstract

The Colombian State, since the Political Charter of 1991, generated a general normative development, among which, it imposed that the actions of public entities be consistent with the purposes and principles established in the constitutional regime, of that, that the rule and burden of financial liability of public entities for their actions and omissions have been established, where they cause damage to any person, without that person having the legal duty to bear it; the above as a guarantee and tranquility of the people in the achievement of the legal assets protected by the legal system.

In this context, people’s claims and judicial and administrative requests were not to be expected. The State’s burden of responsibility is clear, and since the Constitution came into force, there have been different situations in which public agents have caused affectations and harm to individuals, making the State's system of responsibility a matter of great jurisprudential development.

The legal burden of the different public entities of the different orders is an issue that was not addressed in a timely manner, generating the recognition and payment of compensation for judicial convictions or conciliations, which led to the creation of the National Agency of legal defense of the State, as an institution responsible for the protection and monitoring of judicial complaints, with the aim of having an effective judicial representation of the State and thus avoid unnecessary tax incidents or reducing them as much as possible.