Rigidez de la constitución y reforma constitucional: estudio analítico de la actuación de los jueces constitucionales durante el período 2008-2019

Abstract

The present thesis project aims to analyze constitutional rigidity and constitutional reform in the context of Ecuador. The decisive objective within our field of study will be to determine whether the Constitutional Court through its jurisprudence has contributed to the strengthening of the rigidity of the Constitution or, on the contrary, has ostensibly weakened it, favoring constitutional reforms driven by the government. Constitutional amendment is such an important theme among constitutional studies that it has been theorized since the XVIII century. Constituent power theory attempts to explain constitutional amendment and constitutional reform. Since 2008, the Ecuadorian Constitution establishes three amendment procedures: enmienda, reforma parcial and asamblea constituyente. The first two mechanisms refer to derived constituent power, whilst the third one referes to original constituent power. By analyzing all constitutional reform decisions, issued by the Constitutional Court from 2008 to 2020, it is confirmed the hypothesis that judges have not contributed to constitutional rigidity. Although this has changes during the last year there are still some problems that need to be addressed by the Constitutional Court.