The
Constitutional Court of Chile
(
Tribunal Constitucional de Chile
in Spanish) is
Chile
's
constitutional tribunal
. It is not part of the judicial branch and is functionally independent of the
Congress
and the
President
. The court is housed in the
Ex Caja de Credito Hipotecario
building, which is located at 1234
Huerfanos Street
in downtown
Santiago
.
History
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The Constitutional Court was created in 1970, under the
Constitution of 1925
. In 1973, after the
coup d'etat
, it was dissolved, but the
1980 Constitution
reinstated it.
Until 2005, some members were designated by the
National Security Council
(a civic-military committee).
Attributions
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According to the Chilean constitution, its principal attribution is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e., whether they conflict with constitutionally established rights and freedoms. This function not only applies to legislative acts, but also to judicial decrees (
autoacordados
), presidential decrees (
Decretos con Fuerza de Ley
), or even ordinary decrees when the
Comptroller-General
deems it to be unconstitutional.
Also, the Court has attributions on the convocation to referendums, outlawing groups or parties which seriously violate the institutional order, deposing members of Congress who seriously infringe the constitution, resolving conflicts between lower courts and administrative agencies, and many others.
Ministers
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The Constitutional Court is composed of ten members, called Ministers:
Members have nine-year terms, renewed by thirds every three years, and can not be re-elected.
The Constitutional Court can work as a United Court (
Pleno
) or divided in two Chambers (
Salas
).
In the event a quorum is below the legally required, deputy ministers (
ministros suplentes
), or substitute attorneys (
abogados integrantes
) are designated.
The court's president has the power to break a tie.
External links
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]