Debate in Legal Sciences on constitutional reforms

On April 8, the Chair of Constitutional Law of the Faculty of Legal Sciences organized the conference called: “Limits to the power of constitutional reform”, dictated by the professors: Gonzalo Ramírez, from the Externado University (Colombia); Esperanza Gómez, from the University of Seville (Spain), and Jorge Benavides, professor at the Institute of Higher National Studies (Ecuador).

The event was broadcast by the digital platform Zoom and began with the words of welcome and a short introduction by José Chalco, Dean of the Faculty of Legal Sciences: “Constitutionalism is science, history, social and political response in accordance with the realities ”.

The first speaker was Ramírez, who at the beginning gave a brief explanation about the constitutional reform, later he addressed issues related to the limits of reform, formal and material; He also exemplified what was analyzed with some case studies.

Constitutional reform is a technical procedure that allows revising or reforming the Constitution without changing it, with the aim of adapting it to the realities of the present, however, there are basic aspects within the Constitution that the power of reform cannot eliminate.

The second speaker was Gómez, who pointed out that the Spanish Constitution can be reformed, but Spain is not capable of updating it, since the Constitution is 40 years old and has only undergone two reforms. "Our entire Constitution is reformable, but we collide with reality because we are not capable of updating it," said Gómez.

The first Spanish reform was carried out in 1992 to allow passive suffrage in municipal elections for foreigners, and the second was in 2011 to introduce the concept of budgetary stability due to the economic crisis of 2008. In Ecuador, the Constitution has been in force for 13 years. and has undergone four modifications. 

The third speaker was Benavides, who spoke about the limits to the reform of the Constitution based on the Ecuadorian case. At first, he talked about the procedures, the initiative, the procedures and the different ways of how the Ecuadorian Constitution of 2008 is reformed, and finally the limits of the reform and the participation of the Constitutional Court were addressed.

The conference ended with a round of questions to the speakers from the public.

UDA Correspondent