The Constitutional Court firmly left the Statutory Law of Agrarian Jurisdiction, which sets the principles of this special system, created to resolve land lyos and accelerate rural reform Integral, first point of the peace and political flag agreement of President Gustavo Petro.
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The statutory law was the ‘step 2’ of the scaffolding, created with legislative act 03 of 2023which included this jurisdiction in the Constitution to guarantee the existence of specialized judges and magistrates to unlock thousands of land processes that remain stagnant. The ordinary law is still under discussion in Congress, which sets the procedures and powers to execute it.
Among the issues that would be processed through this jurisdiction are:
– Use and possession of the Earth.
– Appeared contracts and other agricultural contracts.
– Dunctation by de facto occupations.
– Use of communal resources in agrarian properties.
– Possession of private rural properties.
– Agricultural easements.
– Actions of the National Land Agency.
For the Court, the process of the norm respected the required requirements: the principles of consecutivity and flexible identity were not unknown, the fiscal impact was studied and prior consultation was not necessary.
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Agro
However, he concluded that the principle of unit of matter was violated in articles 4 and 5, which regulated matters of the administration of justice – as the competence of the high courts – and that they had no relation to the central axis of the norm. That’s why, The Chamber determined that they were incompatible with the Constitution.
When analyzing the rest of the statutory bill, that is, without those articles, the Chamber stressed that in compliance with point one of the final peace agreement, Through Judgment SU-288 of 2002he urged Congress to create the legal framework to carry out the agrarian reform.
Based on these elements, He concluded that the rest of the content is compatible with the Constitution, except articles 3 and 8, which were declared exequible in a conditioned manner. Article 3 is only constitutional in the understanding that the article that modifies is the 12 of Law 270 of 1996 (statutory of the administration of justice).
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Agrarian reform.
Article 8 was declared constitutional under two conditions. The first, that exams in contests for agricultural and rural judges and magistrates on fundamental rights of the peasant population and differential approaches (Territorial, gender, among others).
The second, that the Superior Council of the Judiciary guarantees the equity and equal opportunities for women, peasant communities, ethnic and victims of the armed conflict in the provision of these positions.
According to Havana’s pacts between the Colombian State and the FARC guerrillas, the Colombian State has the obligation to regulate agricultural and rural jurisdiction To guarantee a “free technical defense so that any subject of special protection, belonging to peasant communities and ethnic groups, or who does not have sufficient resources may have the representation of a lawyer or lawyer who advises and represents him in all judicial proceedings.”
Likewise, he asked to adjust the plugs of the administration of justice – which is what is being processed – to expedite the process and allow the judges to act proactively to collect the necessary evidence to administer justice under the principles of agricultural law.
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Time – Justice
