núm. 15 (2013): revista via iuris 15 (julio - diciembre)

The recent proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on a Common European Sales Law, gives us the chance to make a few brief comments and criticisms concerning its application and adaptation of the Spanish legislation. Indeed, it has been made a thorough study of the Community rules on the concept of contractual offer on the international level, as a frame of reference, not only our own domestic law, but also the uniform law and the latest European contract law, perceiving its possible additions. Thus, the existence and importance of an optional regulation highlights the desired unification of the law of contracts, giving special importance to the study of concrete issues, such as the configuration of the offer and its erfection, the possibility of its revocation and expiry, which in this work are discussed in depth.

The main purpose of this paper is to highlight the possible relationship between revolutionary democracy originated in the Reformation and the Latin American neoconstitutionalism. Its main objectives are: a) examine the Reformation in order to establish the relationship between it and the French Revolution b) analyze the importance of the ideology of the far left in the French Revolution, and c) assess the common foundations of Latin American neoconstitutionalism and the revolutionary democracy rooted in both the Reformation and the French Revolution. The methodology is exploratory and aims at primary and secondary documentary sources. The findings tend to demonstrate the ideological and theological foundations of Latin American neoconstitutionalism.

The proposed article presents an overview of the relationship between law, politics and war in Colombia.To find this relationship I turn to Schmitt’s formulation, poured in the book The Concept of the Political, which states, politics is defined from the friend / enemy relationship. Based on this analysis, I reflect about the negative effects it can have an appeal to a right of enemy in the context of the armed conflict in Colombia, and particularly through the use of this right from the extension of the term terrorism in the different conventions produced within the United Nations from 11 September 2001. The methodology comes from the analysis of the theory of Carl Schmitt, contained in the book The Concept of the Political and its application in Colombia in the treatment of the armed actor, particularly in the previous government. The conclusion of the text is that only through a relativization of hostilities, in other words, through the recognition of political status to the enemy in Colombia, it is possible to start a negotiation of the internal armed conflict.

The present article reviews the evolution of family studies in Colombia, from the pioneering work of Virginia Gutiérrez de Pineda, noting how in her intellectual journey she, shortly before her death, managed to foresee the subject that will become one of the most important emerging research agendas in the study of family issues in recent times: the status of same-sex couples. Through the different concepts and types of family, the article is showing a genealogy of what is constituted as a basis for claiming a right to gay marriage, but also announcing the dissociation that de facto has been occurring between marriage and family.

The following article presents the results of the analysis about the theoretical and legislative process of the institutionalization of regional citizenship in the Andean Community of Nations CAN and the progress towards Universal Citizenship in the implementation of this principle in the 2008 Constitution of Ecuador. To meet this objective, the text takes a theoretical approach to the concept of regional citizenship, mentions the Andean Community regulations framing the rights of regional citizens in the CAN, describes the Ecuadorian circumstances that led to the adoption of the principle of Universal Citizenship and synthesizes the Ecuadorian experience and constitutional provisions that originated the inclusion in the Constitution of 2008. The text is a result of a documentary research.

This paper presents a detailed analysis on the evolution of the regulatory framework, jurisprudence, doctrine and postures of the Superintendent of Public Services for the past 10 years, related to the topics of the sanctioning power that residential public utilities companies in Colombia attribute themselves against users of electrical service, and the administrative action developed by the provider companies, due to the detection of anomalies that constitute fraud in the electrical connections and measuring equipment. This, in order to show that there is a legal loophole regarding the matter, and this has generated great controversy between companies and residential public utilities users, who have been violated in their economic interests by paying the pecuniary sanctions imposed.

This article’s main objective is to investigate the proposals from several theorists of international relations to describe the emergence and evolution of multilateralism from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; on this tour it is verified the conceptual components that characterize and constitute the contemporary multilateralism and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) whose mission, until the constitution in the 90’s of the World Trade Organization (WTO), has been promoting a healthy international trade. We conclude from this study that multilateralism is not indifferent to the events and political, economic and social facts from their context, which have resulted in various economic and financial crises currently. So the “new multilateralism”, to deal with the circumstances result of the financial and economic crisis that crack and afflict the international structure, must be made of flexible structures able to adequately articulate the points of interconnection between the institutions from the public and the private sector, promoting a solution to the problem with a sense of participatory responsibility to monitor the conditions of world political economy of global trade within a new capitalist order.

This paper presents the evolution of the concept of universal citizenship, by the authors who have shaped the most significant transformations of this concept from its mention by Immanuel Kant to the present. In that sense will address some contemporary authors that are currently engaged in the study -and discussion of citizenship as a category that supports the rights of migrants. The relevance or novelty of this category lies in its inclusion in the Ecuadorian Constitution of 2008, a situation that makes necessary to analyze and develop conceptually this category. To that purpose, historical and descriptive methodology was used to analyze historical development of this concept since the days of the Enlightenment until today. Initially it was collected information relevant to the topic in databases, libraries, national and international institutions and organizations specialized in migration issues. Finally it is presented an approximation or a sketch made by balancing the various positions that historically have driven the concept of universal citizenship. In such work is evident that universal citizenship is a category that denationalizes human rights and allows these to be discussed, expanded and re-signified according to each particular culture.

The paper presents an overview of the jurisprudential experience in Argentina since the introduction of the figure of punitive damages in the Consumer Protection Act in 2008. Similarly, it is outlined the reasoning made by judges when they deal with a case of punitive damages, in the form of a deductive syllogism to see where the core of the disagreements in this matter lies, to provide a starting point that allows to reach an agreement on the implementation of punitive figure; to conclude whether the reception of the figure of punitive damages has been an advance, a regression or a plateau in the Argentine private law. This research is based on the study of edited and unpublished sources on the subject in the Argentine doctrine, in the collection and analysis of case material from the entry into force of Article 52 bis of the Consumer Protection Act.

Understanding the constitutional scope is not restricted to the content of its articles. The Constitution as a primary source of law and as a reason for a State goes beyond what the primary constituent could print on paper. This is the reason of the importance of constitutional interpretation, with each of its guiding theories or existing slopes. The focus of the discussion is the control of constitutionality and what is called proportionality,balance and weighing, which -within the legal systemare headed by a judge in the exercise of their freedom,independence or autonomy. All this comes into play in the constitutional theory field, to find arguments that reinforce the idea of the existence of constitutional control. Debates that daily feed constitutional supremacy, its true sense, respect and protection from the justice administration at the head of the judiciary, as well as recognition of the constituent power that brings the popular sovereignty and guarantees the democratic power. The doctrine and jurisprudence treated from qualitative and analytical-descriptive research, that has been used in this case, has responded to each of the objectives, giving the opportunity to the next study, which will address the problem of constitutional role of the judge in the concept of constitutional justice.