Supreme Tribunal rules constitution says the opposite of what constitution says, Economic Emergency Decree ruled valid
In a tortured ruling that directly contradicts the plain meaning of the constitutional text, the Supreme Tribunal railroads Luis Salas's Economic Emergency Decree into force.
So, you remember that bit of the constitution where it says that in order for the President to declare an Economic Emergency, he needs the National Assembly’s approval? Yeah, that bit…
Well, the chavista Supreme Tribunal has just ruled that when the constitution says you can’t do that without parliamentary approval, what it means is that you can do that without parliamentary approval.
Even by the standards of the Chavista TSJ this ruling is really, really crazy.
The decision interprets boilerplate in article 27 of the Ley Orgánica sobre Decretos de Excepción saying “the decree shall be approved by an absolute majority of deputies at the National Assembly” to mean that the majority of deputies has a positive obligation to vote in favor of any State of Exception put before them, and is violating the constitution if it refuses to accord it!
3.3.- En lo que concierne al control político, deberá ser “aprobado por la mayoría absoluta de los diputados y diputadas presentes en sesión especial que se realizará sin previa convocatoria, dentro de las cuarenta y ocho horas de haberse hecho público el decreto” (artículo 27, párrafo primero Ley Orgánica sobre Estados de Excepción); norma que, por notoriedad comunicacional, advierte esta Sala, no fue cumplida por la Asamblea Nacional, circunstancia que vulneró la legalidad procesal, la seguridad jurídica y el debido proceso consagrado en el artículo 49 Constitucional, pilares fundamentales del Estado Constitucional de Derecho (vid. arts. 2, 7, 137, 334, 335 y 336 del Texto Fundamental), viciando de nulidad por inconstitucionalidad el proceso que culminó con el constitucionalmente írrito acuerdo dictado por la máxima representación del Poder Legislativo Nacional, el 22 de enero de 2016.
The Economic Emergency Decree is now in force.
The Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela? Not so much…
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