Chairs:

• Rafael Ostau de Lafont Pianeta: rafael.lafont@uexternado.edu.co
• Bernardo Carvajal Sánchez: bernardo.carvajal@uexternado.edu.co

In the constitutional design of a significant number of States, especially following the French experience, the Contentious-Administrative Jurisdiction (CAJ) has consolidated itself as a fundamental pillar of the Rule of Law, aimed at ensuring the effective subjection of public authorities to the Law and controlling the democratic exercise of power. Such is the case with the adoption in Colombia of the Council of State (Consejo de Estado) and the contentious-administrative jurisdiction, the evolution of which is important to highlight, understand, and study from the perspectives of national constitutionalism and comparative public law. All of this is also relevant from a political science perspective, as the controls, procedures, and competences implemented impact the entirety of the cycle of the exercise of political power.

The problems that this workshop seeks to address are principally the following: Does the CAJ control the exercise of public power in all its cycles (elections, nominations, removals, the legality of acts and contracts of the public administration, the extracontractual liability of the State for the actions or omissions of its agents)? Is this an absolute judicial control, or do zones excluded from the judicial control of the CAJ subsist, which are also not attributed to other authorities of the Judicial Branch? Is there an inextricable link between the control exercised by the CAJ in light of the principle of the Democratic Rule of Law and the constitutional guarantee of its independence regarding other powers?