Operations
Description of positions
The Constitutional Court (CC) has several areas that work in a coordinated and complementary manner. This structure enables the Court to carry out its principal function, namely safeguarding constitutional supremacy through preventive and subsequent constitutional review of legal provisions, resolving jurisdictional disputes, ruling on disqualifications, incompatibilities, resignations and grounds for removal from office of the holders of certain State offices, and ruling on acts contrary to the Constitution.
The following provides a brief overview of the principal functions of each area or section:
Plenary (Pleno de Ministras y Ministros)
Constitutional Organic Law No. 17,997 establishes in Article 30 that the Plenary requires a minimum quorum of eight of the ten justices in order to sit. All powers and matters pertaining to the Plenary are set out in Article 31 of the aforementioned law.
President
Primus inter pares, the President directs and represents the Constitutional Court. The President is elected by the Plenary and must obtain a simple majority of votes. The term of office is two years, and the President may not be re-elected for two consecutive terms. The powers of the President are described in Article 8 of the Organic Law of the Constitutional Court.
Justice
Justices are appointed by the President of the Republic (who appoints three), the Supreme Court (three), and Congress (two nominated by the Senate and two by the Chamber of Deputies, with the approval of the Senate). They are members of the Plenary and of one of the two Chambers of the Constitutional Court, where they carry out jurisdictional work, specifically hearing cases, deliberating and signing judgments. They serve for a term of nine years and may cease in the exercise of their office in accordance with Article 15 of Constitutional Organic Law No. 17,997. Their work takes place in the Plenary (ten justices) and in the First and Second Chambers (each consists of five members). The justices elect a President, who serves in that role for a period of two years.
Chambers
Constitutional Organic Law No. 17,997 establishes in Article 30 that there must be two Chambers. Each Chamber consists of five justices and requires a minimum quorum of four in order to sit. The President of the Court presides over the Chamber to which he or she is assigned, while the other Chamber is presided over by the most senior justice. All matters heard by the Chambers are defined in Article 32 of Constitutional Organic Law No. 17,997. As a general rule, the Chambers deal with the initiation of proceedings and admissibility.
Secretary of the Court
The Court’s certifying officer, administrative head and direct authority over the staff, in accordance with Article 159 of the Organic Law of the Constitutional Court.
Rapporteur
Presents to the Court the background, documents and circumstances of the proceedings submitted for its consideration, so that the Court is properly informed in order to conduct its analysis and issue a decision.
Chief of Staff
Assists the President of the Court directly in coordinating and overseeing the work and hierarchical relationships of the units that make up the Court, as well as in matters relating to coordination and communication with external authorities and bodies (national and international) with which the Court interacts.
Committees
Although the principal work of the Plenary of the Court (Pleno de Ministras y Ministros) is jurisdictional activity, its members also perform other administrative functions within the Constitutional Court, such as advising the Presidency. For this purpose, permanent working committees were created in 2009 to address specific areas or issues.
Each of these committees consists of two or three justices, who are responsible for preparing proposals on various matters that are subsequently presented to the Plenary. To carry out this work, the justices meet periodically.
The committees have been grouped into two categories. The first is “statutory”, meaning that it must exist by law, while the second corresponds to “advisory” committees, which are not legally required and which, in the case of the Constitutional Court, provide advice to the Presidency. The “statutory” category includes the Joint Health and Safety Committee (Comité Paritario de Higiene y Seguridad), while the “advisory” category includes the Internal Administration Committee (Comité de Régimen Interno), the Academic Committee (Comité Académico), the International Relations Committee (Comité de Relaciones Internacionales), the Communications Committee (Comité de Comunicaciones), and the Access to Justice Committee (Comité de Acceso a la Justicia).
The following is the chronological order in which the committees were established:
The following is the chronological order in which the committees were established:
2009
- Internal Administration Committee
- International Relations Committee
- Academic Committee
2014
- Joint Health and Safety Committee
2024
- Communications Committee
2025
- Access to Justice Committee