Not so Moderate: The Relationship between the Colombian Legal System and International Law

Abstract

This chapter demonstrates how the Colombian Constitutional Court shaped the relationship between municipal and international law by decisively defining the role of international law in Colombia. It resorts to the classical distinction between monism and dualism as analytical tools to study the Colombian Constitutional Court’s decisions. The Court’s position regarding the interaction between international and domestic law does not fit the ‘moderate monism’ model it has claimed to have followed since 1998. On the contrary, the answer to the question about the status of general international law in the Colombian constitutional order is at some point between constitutional monism and dualism. To that extent, with the exceptions of jus cogens, international human rights law, international humanitarian law, and border delimitation, the Colombian Constitutional Court follows a “sovereigntist or statist” position, in which there is a general prevalence of domestic legislation over international law. However, the chapter does recognize that the Court has found a useful tool in international law to advance in significant social, political, and economic changes. © The various contributors 2021.