Legitimidad de la justicia administrativa colombiana. Una mirada desde la percepción de su diseño institucional

Abstract

This work presents the resultsof a research that aimed to determine to what extent elements that are part ofthe organizational rules of administrative justice influence its legitimacy, inorder to guarantee its independence in the Colombian case. Based on the resultsof this inquiry, the study proposes measures to improve the administrativejustice system in Colombia, seeking to contribute to increasing its legitimacy.For this purpose, based on a thorough understanding of the characteristics ofthe institutional design of the Colombian administrative justice, described inthe first part, an empirical study was carried out using the interviewtechnique, by means of a structured questionnaire of sixteen questions derivedfrom a global query: Do the constitutional and legal rules that establish andguarantee the independence of administrative justice in Colombia promote itseffective functioning? The questionnaire was presented to seventeen key actorsof the Colombian administrative justice system, and its results aredescribed in the second part of the text.Additionally, in order to rely onadditional elements of judgment for the identification of proposals to improvethe system under investigation, the study includes a description of the Frenchjustice model, since this model has been a constant reference for itscounterpart institutions in Colombia. Finally, other experiences are reviewed,with a special focus on research papers and reports from specializedinstitutions that have addressed this issue in different regions;these secondary sources of information are used to complement proactively thefindings of the field work.