Chile 1980 Constitution (reviewed 2021)

CHAPTER VIII. CONSTITUTIONAL COURT

ARTICLE 92

There will be a Constitutional Court composed by ten members, appointed as follows:

1. Three appointed by the President of the Republic.
2. Four elected by the National Congress. Two shall be appointed directly by the Senate and two shall be previously proposed by the House of Representatives for approval or rejection by the Senate. The designations, or the proposals, in their case, shall be made in single votes and will require for their approval of the favorable vote of two-thirds of the senators or active Representative, as appropriate.
3. Three elected by the Supreme Court in a secret ballot that shall be celebrated in a session specially convened for that purpose.

Its members shall last nine years in office and shall be partially renewed every three years. They must have held the degree of lawyer for at least fifteen years, must have excelled in professional, academic or public activity, must not have any ineligibility that renders them unfit to hold the office of judge, will be subjected to the norms of articles 58, 59 and 81, and will not be able to exercise the profession of lawyer, including the judicature, or any other act of those established in the second and third paragraphs of article 60.

The members of the Constitutional Court are irremovable and may not be re-elected, except in the case of the one that has been a replacement and has held the position for less than five years. They will cease to hold office once they turn 75 years old.

If a member of the Constitutional Court leaves office, his replacement will proceed by the person to whom it corresponds, in agreement with the first paragraph of this article and for the time that remains to complete the replacement period.

The Court will function in plenum or divided into two houses. In the first case, the quorum for meetings shall be, at least, eight members and in the second case, at least, four. The Court will adopt its agreements by simple majority, except where a different quorum is required, and shall judge according to law. The Court in plenum will resolve definitely the attributions indicated in numbers 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11 of the next article. To exercise its remaining powers, it may function in plenum or in houses according to what is prescribed by the respective constitutional organic law.

A constitutional organic law shall determine its organization, functioning, procedures and will establish the staffing, the regime of remunerations and the employment statute of its personnel.

ARTICLE 93

The powers of the Constitutional Court are:

1. To exercise the control of constitutionality of the laws that interpret any provision of the Constitution, of the constitutional organic laws, and of the norms of a treaty which are related to matters belonging to the latter, prior their promulgation;
2. To resolve matters of constitutionality of judicial self-regulations issued by the Supreme Court, the Courts of Appeal and the Election Qualifying Court;
3. To resolve questions of constitutionality that appear during the processing of bills or of constitutional amendment bills and of the treaties subject to congressional approval;
4. To resolve questions that appear regarding the constitutionality of a decree with force of law;
5. To resolve questions that appear regarding the constitutionality a call for a plebiscite, notwithstanding the powers that correspond to the Election Qualifying Court;
6. To resolve, by the majority of its active members, the inapplicability of a legal rule whose application -in any procedure to be followed before a regular or special court- prove contrary to the Constitution;
7. To resolve, by the majority of four-fifths of its active members, the unconstitutionality of a legal rule declared inapplicable in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph;
8. To resolve complaints in the case that the President of the Republic does not promulgate a law when required to do so or enacts a different text than the one that corresponds constitutionally.
9. To resolve on the constitutionality of a decree or resolution issued by the President of the Republic that the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic has objected for deeming it unconstitutional, when it is required by the President in accordance with article 99;
10. To declare the unconstitutionality of organizations and movements or political parties, as well as the responsibility of persons who have been involved in the events that led to the declaration of unconstitutionality, in accordance with the provisions of the sixth, seventh and eighth paragraphs of number 15 article 19 of this Constitution. However, if the person affected was to be the President of the Republic or the elected President, the aforementioned declaration will also require the agreement of the Senate adopted by the majority of its active members;
11. To inform the Senate in the cases that are referred to in article 53 number 7 of this Constitution;
12. To resolve the jurisdictional disputes that arise between the political or administrative authorities and the courts of justice, which do not correspond to the Senate;
13. To resolve on the constitutional or legal inabilities that affect a person to be appointed Minister of State, remain in the said position or perform other functions simultaneously;
14. To decide on the inabilities, incompatibilities and grounds for removal from office of parliamentarians.
15. To qualify the inability invoked by a congressman in the terms of the final paragraph of article 60 and pronounce itself on the renunciation to the position, and
16. To decide on the constitutionality of supreme decrees, regardless of the alleged defect, including those that may be issued in the exercise of the autonomous regulatory power of the President of the Republic when they refer to matters that may be reserved to the law by mandate of article 63.

In the case of number 1, the House of origin will send the respective bill to the Constitutional Court within five days from the moment on which it is fully processed by Congress.

In the case of number 2, the Court may hear the matter at the request of the President of the Republic, of either of the Houses or of ten of their members. Also, any person who is a part of a trial or pending process before an ordinary or special court may request the Court to hear the matter, when he is affected in the exercise of his fundamental rights as provided in the respective judicial self-regulations.

In the case of number 3, the Court will only hear the matter at the request of the President of the Republic, of any of the Houses or of one-fourth of their active members, provided it is made before the enactment of the law or the referral of the communication that informs the approval of the treaty by the National Congress and, in any case, after the fifth day of the dispatched of the bill or of the specified communication.

The Court shall decide within ten days from receiving the request, unless it decides to extend it for up to ten days for serious and justified reasons.

The request shall not suspend the processing of the bill; but the challenged part of it will not be promulgated until the expiration of the said period, unless it concerns the Budget Law bill or the bill relative to the declaration of war proposed by the President of the Republic.

In the case of number 4, the matter may be raised by the President within ten days when the Office of the Comptroller General rejects as unconstitutional a decree with force of law. It can also be referred by any of the Houses or by one-fourth of its members in office in the case that the Office of the Comptroller General should have taken register of a decree with force of law that has been rejected as unconstitutional. This request must be made within thirty days, from the date of publication of the respective decree with force of law.

In the case of number 5, the issue may be raised at the requirement of the Senate or of the House of Representative, within ten days counted from the date of the publication of the decree that sets the day of the plebiscite.

The Court shall establish in its ruling the final text of the plebiscite, when it is due.

If at the time of ruling there were less than thirty days left for the plebiscite to take place, the Court shall fix in it a new date contemplated to be between thirty and sixty days after the ruling.

In the case of number 6 the matter may be raised by either party or by the judge hearing the case. Any of the Houses of the Court may declare, without appeal, the admissibility of the matter as long as the existence of a pending process before the ordinary or special court is verified, that the application of the challenged legal provision can be decisive in solving the matter, that the challenge is reasonably founded and that the other requirements set forth by the law are met. The suspension of the procedure that originated the action of inapplicability for unconstitutionality will be responsibility of this same House.

In the case of number 7, once the declaration of inapplicability of a legal provision has been declared on a previous ruling, in accordance with number 6 of this article, there shall be public action to request the Court the declaration of unconstitutionality, notwithstanding the power of the Court to declare it ex officio. The respective constitutional organic law shall set forth the admissibility requirements, in the event that the public action is exercised, and shall regulate the procedure that will have to be followed to act ex officio.

In the cases of number 8, the issue may be raised by any of the Houses or by one-fourth of their active members, within thirty days following the publication of the contested text or within sixty days following the date in which the President of the Republic should have promulgated the law. If the Court accepts the claim, it will promulgate in its ruling the law which has not been enacted or will rectify the incorrect promulgation.

In the case of number 11, the Court shall only hear the matter at the request of the Senate.

There will be public action to request the Court regarding the powers that are conferred to it by numbers 10 and 13 of this article.

However, if in the case of number 10 the affected person was the President of the Republic or the elected President, the request shall be formulated by the House of Representatives or by one-fourth of its active members.

In the case of number 12, the request shall be raised by any of the authorities or courts in conflict.

In the case of number 14, the Court shall only hear the matter at the request of the President of the Republic or of no fewer than 10 active members of the Congress.

In the case of number 16, the Court may only hear the matter at the request of any of the Houses made within thirty days following the publication or notification of the contested text. In the case of defects that are not related to decrees that exceed the autonomous regulatory power of the President of the Republic, these will also require one-quarter of the active members to bring this request.

The Constitutional Court may appreciate the facts in conscience when it takes cognizance of the powers indicated in numbers 10, 11 and 13, as, also, when hearing the grounds for removal from office of a member of Congress.

In the cases of number 10, 13 and in the case of number 2 when it is required by one party, it shall correspond to a House of the Court to rule -without appeal- its admissibility.

ARTICLE 94

No remedy whatsoever shall apply against the decisions of the Constitutional Court. Nevertheless, the same Court, in accordance with law, may correct the de facto errors which may have been made.

The provisions that the Court declares unconstitutional may not become law in the bill or decree with force of law in regard.

In the case of number 16 of article 93, the challenged supreme decree shall be void as of right of law, on the sole merit of the ruling of the Court which deals with the claim. However, the provision declared unconstitutional in accordance with the provisions of paragraphs 2, 4 or 7 of article 93, will be understood repealed from the moment of the publication in the Official Gazette of the ruling that accepts the complaint, which will not have retroactive effect.

The rulings that declare the unconstitutionality of all or part of a law, a decree with force of law, a supreme decree or a judicial self-regulation, when due, shall be published in the Official Gazette within three days of their pronouncement.