El derecho a la seguridad jurídica y la modificación del procedimiento de rebaja de penas

Abstract

Legal Security in Ecuador is recognized as Right, Principle and Guarantee. As Law, it is established in Art. 82 of the Constitution of the Republic, which is based on respect for the Fundamental Charter and on the existence of previous, clear, public legal norms applied by the competent authorities (Constituent Assembly, 2008). As a Principle, it recognizes the legislature as being constitutionally responsible for creating, modifying or repealing the regulations that involve constitutional rights, and at the same time, it charges the judges with giving certainty and confidence to the citizens regarding the correct application of the law, since, Only in this way can people predict the effects and consequences of their acts or omissions. And as a Guarantee, Legal Security is the foundational and common mechanism for all individuals, guaranteed in the Constitutional Charter in order to protect the individual and collective rights of the inhabitants of the State. In the specific case, since the persons deprived of liberty are members of the Ecuadorian State and constitutionally recognized as a group of priority attention, they enjoy the right to Legal Security and other rights inherent to the human being, therefore, the Council of the Judiciary when issuing Resolution 085-2014 establishes a new requirement and modifies the procedure already existing in the relevant regulations to access the benefit of Reduction of Penalties for Merits, violated the Legal Security constitutionally established, since said requirement that varies the procedure is not covered by Favorability for the inmate, but distressing the procedure that must be followed by those deprived of liberty who have fulfilled the requirements to obtain their early release. This resolution also contravenes the Principle of Reserve of Law, since the Council of the Judiciary is the administrative organ of the Judicial Function, which can only regulate the rights that are guaranteed in the norm and that lacks procedure, but not, negatively modify the pre-existing ones as in the present case, in which through Resolution 085-2014 increases a requirement and changes the procedure previously established in the Code of Execution of Penalties and Social Rehabilitation (National Congress, 2006), in the Regulations Substitute for the General Regulation of Application of the Code of Execution of Penalties and Social Rehabilitation (Executive Function, 2001) and in the Regulation for the Granting of Reduction of Penalties by Merit System (National Council of Social Rehabilitation, 2008). With the application of the information collection instruments, it was determined that the Judicial Council with the issuance of Resolution 085-2014 violates the right to Legal Security, since it is not constitutionally empowered to establish requirements and procedures through a resolution. contrary to those already established, because with this change it is generating a decrease in the percentages of reduction of penalties for merits of persons deprived of liberty, despite the fact that the PPLs have fully complied with training, health, social work, and appropriate behavior programs offered by the Social Rehabilitation Centers, thus harming the Right to Freedom that the inmates who have positively changed their behavior become creditors, also generating prison overcrowding and violation of the other rights enjoyed by persons deprived of liberty.