Title VII. On Constitutional Control
Article 184. Constitutional Court
There shall be a Constitutional Court to guarantee the supremacy of the Constitution, the defense of the constitutional order and the protection of fundamental rights. Its decisions are definitive and irrevocable and constitute binding precedents for the public powers and all the organs of the State. It shall enjoy administrative and budgetary autonomy.
Article 185. Powers
The Constitutional Court shall be responsible for knowing in sole instance:
- Direct actions of unconstitutionality against the laws, decrees, rules, resolutions and ordinances at the instance of the President of the Republic, of one third of the members of the Senate or of the Chamber of Deputies and any person with legitimate and juridically protected interest.
- The preventative control of international treaties before their ratification by the legislative organ.
- Conflicts of responsibility between the public powers at the instance of one of their heads.
- Any other matter that the law provides.
Article 186. Integration and decisions
The Constitutional Court shall be integrated by thirteen members and its decisions shall be adopted with a majority qualified by nine or more of its members. The judges that have cast a dissident vote may make their motivations known in the adopted decision.
Article 187. Requirements and renewal
In order to be a judge of the Constitutional Court, the same conditions demanded for judges of the Supreme Court are required. Its members shall not be removable during the time of their mandate. The condition of judge may only be lost by death, resignation, or dismissal for grave errors in the exercise of one’s functions, in which case a person may be appointed to complete the period.
Paragraph
The judges of this court shall be appointed for a sole period of nine years. They may not be reelected, except those who have occupied the office for a period less than five years as replacements. The composition of the Court shall be renewed in a gradual manner every three years.
Article 188. Diffuse control
The courts of the Republic shall know the pleadings of constitutionality in the matters submitted for their review.
Article 189. Regulation of the Court
The law shall regulate the constitutional proceedings and that relative to the organization and the functioning of the Constitutional Court.
