Forum es la revista del Centro de Derecho Constitucional de la Facultad de Derecho de la Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina, de edición semestral, y el vehículo de difusión de los estudios académicos surgidos de investigaciones realizadas por los docentes que integran el Centro de Derecho Constitucional. Incluye también textos elaborados por profesores y especialistas que participan en calidad de invitados. La publicación busca contribuir a repensar el Derecho Público desde la concepción iusnaturalista, bajo la guía los principios fundamentales de la justicia y el orden natural, iluminados por la Fe. Su cobertura temática comprende: Derecho Constitucional, Filosofía del Derecho, Derecho Internacional Público, Derecho Administrativo, Historia del Derecho, Derecho Canónico y Eclesiástico y Derecho Comparado.
Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales. Facultad de Derecho. Centro de Derecho Constitucional
Esta obra está bajo una Licencia Creative Commons Atribución-NoComercial-CompartirIgual 4.0 Internacional.
Mensaje del Santo Padre Francisco para la 109ª Jornada Mundial del Migrante y del Refugiado 2023 (24 de septiembre de 2023). Libres de elegir si migrar o quedarse.
Queridos hermanos y hermanas: Los flujos migratorios de nuestros días son expresión de un fenómeno complejo y articulado, cuya comprensión exige el análisis atento de todos los aspectos que caracterizan las diversas etapas de la experiencia migratoria, desde la partida hasta la llegada, incluyendo un eventual regreso. Con la intención de contribuir a ese esfuerzo de lectura de la realidad, he decidido dedicar el Mensaje para la 109ª Jornada Mundial del Migrante y del Refugiado a la libertad que debería caracterizar siempre la decisión de dejar la propia tierra. “Libres de partir, libres de quedarse”, recitaba el título de una iniciativa de solidaridad promovida hace algunos años por la Conferencia Episcopal Italiana como respuesta concreta a los desafíos de las migraciones contemporáneas. Y de mi escucha constante a las Iglesias particulares he podido comprobar que la garantía de esa libertad constituye una preocupación pastoral extendida y compartida.
Copyright (c) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Semblanza de Joaquín V. González, al cumplirse el primer centenario de su fallecimiento.
Estoy muy agradecido por haber sido invitado a exponer en este Congreso destinado a honrar la memoria y rendir un merecido homenaje a Joaquín V. González, un gran argentino, un ilustre riojano y un destacadísimo constitucionalista. Si González es un orgullo para nuestro país y para la provincia de La Rioja, lo es muy especialmente para todos los chileciteños; vaya a ellos mis felicitaciones. He estructurado mi presentación en cuatro partes: en la primera me referiré a la trayectoria pública de González; en la segunda describiré algunos rasgos de su personalidad política; en la tercera, sus aportes al derecho constitucional argentino y, finalmente, pondré la lupa en un rasgo central de su personalidad que, a mi criterio, tiñe toda su monumental obra y es la clave que explica su tremenda fecundidad.
Rodríguez Varela, Alberto, La persona antes de nacer, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, El Derecho, 2023, 489 pp.
La persona antes de nacer, de Alberto Rodríguez Varela, aborda un tema de gran trascendencia y actualidad. Con una mirada integral y desde una perspectiva humanista, examina el estatus jurídico del nasciturus y nos invita a reflexionar acerca de los tópicos que se encuentran en el centro del debate público. Con una marcada identidad cristiana, la obra trae a colación pasajes evangélicos y del Catecismo, al tiempo que acude al magisterio de los Sumos Pontífices, las enseñanzas de los doctores de la Iglesia y de los padres conciliares. Sin embargo, el autor no se limita a ofrecer una síntesis desde la teología, sino que extiende su campo de estudio hacia otras disciplinas del conocimiento, como la medicina, la filosofía, la ética y –por supuesto– la ciencia jurídica.
Parte III - Ensayos, crónicas y recensiones
Abásolo, Ezequiel, Metodología de la Investigación Científica en Derecho. Principios. Criterios. Técnicas, Madrid, Dykinson, 2023, 209 pp.
Quienes nos hemos preocupado por nuestras propias investigaciones también somos responsables de nuestros tesistas y hemos recurrido durante años a una atomización de textos dedicados a los aspectos metodológicos, redactados por licenciados en economía, sociología, matemática, filosofía u otras disciplinas que enriquecen la concepción de los principales aspectos epistemológicos, aunque no sin grandes diferencias y contradicciones entre los autores, atento la deformación profesional del grado. Es en este contexto que aparece la obra del doctor Ezequiel Abásolo como una herramienta que esclarece el camino de quienes deciden transitar la vida académica desde la ciencia jurídica y proporciona opciones no solo a nóveles tesistas, sino también a directores, jurados, integrantes de comisiones asesoras de maestría y doctorados, funcionarios de gestión en investigación y profesores de grado y posgrado dedicados a materias metodológicas.
Mi vínculo con el destinatario de este homenaje se remonta a agosto de 1983, cuando quien escribe estas líneas comenzaba la carrera de abogacía en la Universidad de Buenos Aires. Para poner dicha época en contexto histórico, se trataba de meses de alta ebullición política previos a las elecciones que en octubre de 1983 pondrían fin a siete años de gobierno militar.
In memory of Orlando Juan Gallo (1942-2023).
Esta memoria corre el riesgo de convertirse en autorreferencial, pues no puedo evitar este sesgo dado que, con Orlando J. Gallo, familiarmente “Nito”, hemos sido amigos durante algo más de sesenta años. Teníamos mucho en común, ambos descendientes de familias inmigrantes, radicadas en la zona rural del partido de San Andrés de Giles, venimos a formar parte de la primera generación de profesionales. Él era un poco mayor y había comenzado sus estudios de abogacía en la Universidad de La Plata, optando luego por continuarlos en la Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires (UBA) y así vino a la residencia universitaria creada por el padre Luis María Etcheverry Boneo, donde yo residía, así como otro amigo proveniente de la misma región y entorno familiar, Carlos Raúl Sanz. De tal modo, aunque Gallo estudió en la UBA, quedó a través nuestro muy vinculado a la Universidad Católica Argentina (UCA).
Misinformation and disinformation are among the most dangerous phenomena that democracy faces. While it is a problem exacerbated by technological devices, it originates beyond the internet. This paper analyzes the ways in which law tackle the so-called fake news and how it could do so more effectively.
Una reciente expresión del Papa Francisco sobre el derecho a migrar, con la acotación de que debe ser un acto “libre y nunca la única [opción] posible”2, y diversos comentarios vinculados con la presencia de más de un 8 % de nuevos habitantes en Europa, no nacidos dentro de países de ese continente, lo que ha sido señalado como un riesgo en cuanto se trate de inmigración sin integración, permite reflexionar sobre los alcances y condiciones de dicha integración. Se ha considerado, en general, como un resultado exitoso del experimento argentino de renovar su población sin perder su identidad fundamental, bajo el lema formulado por Juan Bautista Alberdi en sus Bases y puntos de partida...3 de que “la mejor constitución para un desierto es la que haga que deje de ser un desierto”, y su solución en el apotegma “gobernar es poblar”.
About Carson v. Makin: Legal Contours of the Free Exercise of Religion in US Educational Settings
This article reviews the case Carson v. Makin (2022) issued by the US Supreme Court, which analyzes the application of the First Amendment of the US Constitution in educational settings. After briefly reviewing the precedents which frame the decision, this article examines the arguments made by the majority and the dissenting votes relating to the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause; the constitutional leeway for states to favor one clause or the other, and the autonomy of religious organizations under the federal Constitution.
Copyright (c) 2023 María Soledad Riccardi
National Academy of Medicine Statement on Euthanasia
November 16, 2022
Academia Nacional de Medicina (Buenos Aires)
Copyright (c) 2023 Academia Nacional de Medicina (Buenos Aires)
BOOK REVIEW: Santiago, Alfonso (h), La dignidad de la persona humana. Funda- mento del orden jurídico nacional e internacional, Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Ábaco, 2022, 219 pp
Copyright (c) 2023 Josefina Nazábal, María Verónica Nolazco
Juan Antonio González Calderón, Fellow at The National Academy of Law and Science of Buenos Aires
This paper examines the induction of Argentine Professor Juan Antonio Gonzaílez Calderoín to the National Academy of Law and Social Science of Buenos Aires in 1929. It discusses the academic work of Professor Gonzaílez Calderoín prior to his induction to the aforementioned Academy (section II). It documents the process of his nomination, eligibility, review, voting, and the induction ceremony (section III). And it analyses the wealth of sources of law that the Argentine jurist used in his dissertation “The necessary and permanent bases of the [Argentine] Constitution” delivered at the induction ceremony (section IV).
National Academy of Law and Social Sciences of Buenos Aires
Copyright (c) 2023 Maria del Rosario de la Fuente https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
BOOK REVIEW: Ratti Mendaña, Florencia, El precedente horizontal en las cámaras federales de apelaciones argentinas, Buenos Aires, Thomson Reuters – La Ley, 2021, 272 pp.
The Dilemmas facing "Life or Death" Questions, and the Duty of Harmonious Interpretation
Insights on “life or death” questions in the task of the legal interpreters.
The Supreme Court validates Religious Content Celebrations in Public Schools
The Supreme Court has validated the celebration in staterun public schools of festivities originally typical of the Catholic Church, but which are now part of the heritage and cultural tradition of the province in which they are celebrated. The Court strengthens educational federalism and recognizes, within the framework of respect for religious freedom and conscience, the relevance of the objected celebrations.
Copyright (c) 2023 Juan G. Navarro Floria
Preliminary Ideas on the Collective Goods Concept
Over the last decades, the use of the term collective goods has become widespread, both in a social and –as far as it matters– legal framework. However, such generalization has not gone together with a clear understanding of the scope of the concept. This article briefly reviews different approaches that have been made on that definition and discusses –from a critical point of view– aspects that have been pinpointed as identifying characters of these goods. In turn, these goods are compared with public goods of public finances, with public domain goods on the Administrative Law field, and with Roman Law res communis omnium. Overlapping categories are pointed out in the face of rules issued at different times that have not been harmonized, and it is concluded that a general review of the framing of goods and their regulation is a must for our legal system to become more coherent and methodical under the prevailing legal paradigm.
The transformation of human rights, from natural rights to transnatural rights
This text is the Spanish version of the dissertation held by Grégor Puppinck, on May 23, 2022, Universidad Católica Argentina Law School. This translation and reproduction is published with the authorization of the author. The video of the meeting is available on the YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8Kxor3ZObw.
Nota doctrinal sobre la objeción de conciencia
Nota doctrinal aprobada por los obispos miembros de la Comisioín Episcopal para la Doctrina de la Fe en su reunioín CCLVI del 1º de febrero de 2022 (Conferencia Episcopal Española).
Conferencia Episcopal Española Comisión Episcopal para la Doctrina de la Fe
Copyright (c) 2022 Conferencia Episcopal Española Comisión Episcopal para la Doctrina de la Fe
BOOK REVIEW: Dalla Vía, Alberto R., Derecho Electoral. Teoría y práctica, Buenos Aires, Rubinzal Culzoni, 2021, 472 pages.
BOOK REVIEW: Guerra Moreno, Débora (coord.), Constitución y justicia digital, Bogotá, Grupo Editorial Ibáñez, Cúcuta, Universidad Libre, 2021, ISBN: 978-958-791-461-0, 204 pp.
People’s Sovereignty How Hermeneutic Principle. Eight Corollaries From a Dogmatic Reconstruction of the Recent Jurisprudence of the Argentine Supreme Court
This work applies constitutional dogmatic analysis criteria to the survey of the jurisprudence dictated by the argentine Supreme Court of Justice during the period 1984 and 2020. It reconstructs the current position of the court and its ministers regarding the principle of the People’s Sovereignty and identified derived hermeneutical criteria.
Notes on the Constitution and gender-inclusive language
This article reviews the “Report on Gender Inclusive Language in the Spanish Constitution” published by the Royal Spanish Academy in 2020, and analyses whether its findings are appliable to the Argentinean Constitution. The article concludes that there are no legal or linguistic grounds for a constitutional amendment since the language employed by the constituents, i.e. the generic male form, is already inclusive of both male and female sexes.
Public Official Conscientious Objector to Abortion (With particular reference to health professionals)
The exercise of the right to conscientious objection raises specific difficulties in the field of public administration that arise from the duty of obedience that weighs, in general, on public officials, by virtue of the principle of hierarchy that prevails in this field. The question must be analysed and resolved both in the light of the principle of proportionality (which in no case can justify the complete abolition of the right to follow one’s conscience) and in the light of the limits inherent in the duty of obedience of the public employee. These limits of the duty of obedience are accentuated when the public agent develops a professional activity subject to specific technical guidelines (lex artis), as is the case of doctors and nurses, since they must –in case of conflict– execute their tasks according to these criteria rather than the directives of their hierarchical superiors. The right of public sector health professionals to refuse to collaborate in the practice of an abortion can be based both on eminently scientific arguments and on the objections of conscience that the agent may raise.
Copyright (c) 2022 Ignacio M. de la Riva
The Fundamental Human Right to Live in Peace
Some reflections on war and peace as a fundamental human right.
Copyright (c) 2022 Roberto Antonio Punte
Foundations for Municipal Autonomy in an obiter dictum
Argentine municipal autonomy development is deeply related to the standards developed by courts; particularly, the Supreme Court precedents were meaningful. Certainly, since the return to institutional legality, the Supreme Court provided guidelines regarding the municipal autonomy. Recently, the reasonings provided by judges Maqueda and Rosatti in "Intendente de la Municipalidad de Castelli c/ Buenos Aires, Provincia de s/ accioín declarativa" (art. 322 Coídigo Procesal), February 10, 2022 (Fallos: 345:22) brings significant contributions. This paper analyzes the municipalist reasonings offered as an obiter dictum in the ruling.
Copyright (c) 2022 María Gabriela Ábalos
La construcción de canales navegables en la Constitución Nacional: una asignatura pendiente de la cláusula del progreso
La Constitución Nacional encomendó al Congreso Nacional promover la construcción de ferrocarriles y canales navegables, además de la exploración de los ríos interiores (art. 75, inciso 18). A diferencia de lo sucedido con los ferrocarriles, poco y nada se hizo respecto de los canales navegables. Este artículo recoge estudios e investigaciones referidas a la navegación interior, aprovechando ríos existentes conectados a través de canales artificiales, como una forma de lograr en el siglo XXI las metas constitucionales encomendadas al gobierno federal hace más de 160 años.
PRESCRIPTION OF ACTIONS FOR ANNULMENT REFERRING TO IRREGULAR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTS AT THE FEDERAL LEVEL: STATE OF THE ART AND PERSPECTIVES OF CHANGE
Statute of limitations related to the public administration’s prerogative of reviewing, reversing, modifying or substituting administrative decisions from the past are not expressly set forth in the law. Finding a solution on this matter requires previous consideration of several issues regarding the interpretation of the law, all of which show similar complexity and relevance. In particular, the question about whether any statute of limitations may apply to this prerogative with respect to prior administrative decisions that are invalid on absolute grounds, and if so, what is the term of that statutory limitation, has been answered by the National Supreme Court of Justice in old judiciary decisions, by compellingly establishing that no limitation period proceeds over that kind of legal action. Scholars have claimed that the fundamentals of such conclusion are of difficult conciliation with the lawful regulations on the matter, and even with the stare decisis within the Supreme Court itself, concerning, on one hand, common legal practice in the process of interpreting the law –general law just as much as those particularly referred to administrative law– and, on the other, with the social relevance of statutory limitation, including those controversies involving the state as a party. The robustness and persuasive potential of the Supreme Court’s approach contrary to the prevailing judgments allows one to wonder whether the rationales of no legal timeframe was sought by the Court for reasons beyond those strictly legal. Although recent legislative reforms and changes in the case law had occurred on this particular field –reinforcing and confirming that Supreme Court’s traditional view mainly sustained in the private law–, the doubt on the possibility –or even the convenience– of applying that legal doctrine when ruling on cases concerning the public administration’s reversing prerogative remains open.
Public administration’s reversing prerogative
The work undertaken seeks to specify the measure of reasonableness and constitutionality, the classic jury trial, the current trending topic of procedural reform projects, which is not only received in different provinces, but could also become an imminent reality in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, the rest of the national territory and the federal order. Thus, in order to achieve the proposed objective, the origin of this model of prosecution is first investigated, how it was received in the National Constitution and what were the criteria taught by the Supreme Court of Justice or the doctrine when analyzing its applicability. Once that phase of discovery is exhausted, the reasons why Congress never implemented the jury trial are determined; and then the reason moves to discuss whether or not this model of prosecution is an expression of the so-called “popular sovereignty” from a realistic perspective. Once these two points are clarified, certain dimensions of the classic jury trial that have originated more than one controversy, objection or university dialogue are also screened; and they challenge the reader to walk a safe path to approach a plausible answer to disputed questions around the flats of the unmotivated verdict, the suitability of the decision-making body and the independence of the judges. In this way, all these issues always present in the academic discus- sion animated by the jury trial are not only studied rigorously, but at the same time, complemented with the raising of new lines of research and other questions that are still open to truly superior solutions.
Trial - Jury - Classic - Intimate Conviction - Taxquet
Copyright (c) 2021 Carlos Manuel Romero Berdullas
In certain rhetorical discourses, the institutions as a concept is usually opposed to the political importance of personal leadership. In this editorial, the author highlights that both concepts are correlative and mutually needed.
Institutions - Republic - Leadership - Common Good
Copyright (c) 2021 Roberto Antonio Punte
POLITICAL THOUGHT OF FRAY MAMERTO ESQUIÁš
Fray Mamerto Esquiú was a contemplative man in action. Simple, humble, of great closeness to those in need by obedience, he accepted to be consecrated bishop in 1880. Unfortunately for most of the historiography his name is associated with the Constitution of 1853, leaving aside the evolution of his political thought, which beyond of the deficiencies of its formation, it was marked by the classic school, especially Santo Tomás de Aquino. He rejected Catholic liberalism and had a debate with José Manuel Estrada. He fought Buenos Aires politics after the Battle of Pavón. In 1875 he had a great controversy. He suffered attacks from the press and misunderstandings, and in 1880 he severely warned Argentines about the institutional course that the country had taken
Esquiú - Humble - Constitution - Catholic liberalism - Santo Tomás de Aquino.
Copyright (c) 2021 Horacio M. Sánchez de Loria