Constitutional Court of Chile
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The Constitutional Court of Chile (Tribunal Constitucional de Chile in spanish) is a Constitutional court of Chile. It's not part of judiciary branch and it's funcionally independent of the National Congress or the President.
History
The Constitutional Court was created in 1970, under the Constitution of 1925 rule. In 1973, after the coup d'etat, is dissolved, but the 1980 Constitution reinstated it.
Until 2005, many members were designed by the National Security Council (a civic-militar organism).
Attributions
According the Chilean Constitution, their principal attribution is the to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e., whether they conflict with constitutionally established rights and freedoms. This function not only applies to legislative Acts, but also the Judiciary Decrees (Autoacordados), Presidential act-delegated Decrees (Decretos con Fuerza de Ley), or even Ordinary Decrees when the Comptroller-General not autorizes his validation for constitutional issues.
Also, the Court has attributions in Referendum convocatories, declaring illegal groups or parties which seriously violate the institutional order, deposing parliamentarians who seriously infringe the Constitution, resolving conflicts between first-instance Courts and Administrative Agencies, and many others.
Ministers
The Constitutional Court is composed by ten members, called Ministers:
- 3 appointed by the President of the Republic;
- 3 elected by the Supreme Court;
- 2 elected by the Senate by a two-thirds majority;
- 2 proposed by the Chamber of Deputies by a two-thirds majority and confirmed by the Senate by the same margin.
Members last 9 years in office and renewed by thirds every 3 years, and can not be re-elected.
The Constitutional Court can work as a United Court (Pleno) or divided in two Chambers (Salas).
For the event that a quorum is below the legally required, deputy ministers (ministros suplentes), or adjunted attorneys (abogados integrantes) are designated.
External links
- (Spanish) Official site