Reconocimiento legal de los animales como seres sintientes y sujetos de derechos en el Ecuador: Propuesta normativa a partir de la Sentencia 253-20-JH/22 de la Corte Constitucional.

Abstract

Ecuador stands out for having a more advanced regulatory and constitutional development than many countries in the region, regarding the recognition of the rights of nature and, recently, of the rights of animals accompanied by their sentience. Since the 2008 Constitution, nature has been recognized as a subject of rights, placing animals in the background, considering them part of it. However, in 2022, following the case of a female monkey named Estrellita, the Constitutional Court, through Ruling 253-20-JH/22, determined that animals should be considered subjects of rights independently of nature, highlighting that these non-human living beings endow nature with sentience. In this ruling, the Assembly Plenary was ordered to create a specific law for animals, categorizing all legal issues in a single body of legislation. The first problem highlighted by this research lies in the contradiction between civil law and constitutional jurisprudence. Article 585 of the Ecuadorian Civil Code considers animals as semoving beings, ignoring the current recognition as sentient beings by the Constitutional Court in Ruling No. 253-20-JH/22. For this reason, it is necessary to reform Article 585 to continue this regulatory advancement. The second problem lies in the absence of a law corresponding to animals. The recognition granted by the Constitutional Court remains solely as jurisprudence, which prevents the full realization of the great progress that Ecuador has achieved in relation to animals.