Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

This document analyzes the theoretical and practical issues which the environmental taxes created on the basis of the new ends being pursued by the Ecuadorian tax policies entail. This reflection begins by describing the essence behind them, and which bears relationship with its core objective: i.e., to influence those who lead the fight against contamination, internalizing market failures which imply exacerbated social costs having an impact on the community. It also broaches on the destination of the revenues derived from this sort of tax and the pertinent coordination to address public needs. Finally, the contributive capacity principle is studied from a community solidarity approach, bearing in mind and observing the pertinent constitutional principles.

This article analyses the adoption of views of individual communications submitted to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, in which the complainers allege and/or it is declared the violation of Art. 5 a) of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, which determines the obligation of State Parties to modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women, with a view to achieving the elimination of prejudices and customary and all other practices which are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and women. It points out the limits and contributions that we find out in the Committee´s treatment on gender stereotypes and its incidence on violence and discrimination against women. It defends the need to pay accurate attention to the identification of gender stereotypes linked with women´s subordination, to overcoming them. For this purpose, the CEDAW interpretative developments, expressed, among others, in its adoption of views constitute an unavoidable source both for the approval of legislation and public policies as for justice administration.

This paper gathers some of the debates proposed by critical theories, which emphasize on the analysis of law beyond its formal aspect, providing evidence that the law acts in different dimensions, thus producing categories that, at first sight, are identified with difficulty, but are nonetheless relevant in the production of meanings that contribute to keeping the prevailing social order. From this perspective, the law is observed as a social discourse that produces the object over which it intervenes, gives meaning to people’s behavior and legitimizes the structures of domination. Feminist theories, which hold on to this position, propose the promlematization of the gender and law relationship, identifying in its discourse the cultural codes that are used in the construction of gender identities.

It is well established that all States need income in order to fulfill their duties, that is why it is relevant to ask where do this income originates from, or with what means do States count in order to obtain it. In the Ecuadorian case, since 2008, exploiting minerals has been considered a viable option to secure income through industrialization of mining activities. Minerals are exclusively owned by the State; however, private parties may co-participate in the benefits of this activity while paying taxes, royalties, patents, and labor profits to the State. In regards to the mining royalty, the discussion is centered on whether it is a form of tax, or an original patrimonial resource, based on a property right to which the State is the rightholder. This question, considering the economic importance of mining activities, requires an analysis under the light of the public finance theory. In conclusion, in Ecuador presents an ambiguous position between those two concepts, which creates legal and economic disputes.

The duty of contribution to public expenditure is the main object of study of the Constitutional Financial Law. Although the referred duty corresponds originally to the legislator, who is the one obligated by the constitutional mandate to seek wealth and wherever it finds it establishes taxes through the law, this duty has as a final destination the citizens, who in their condition of “taxpayers” are obliged to pay all the taxes established in the law. This relationship between citizens and the State is developed through the bond of a set of principles governing the contribution to public expenditure through which a set of taxpayer rights are born and configured. In that sense, constitutional law is the legal branch that regulates the relationship of duties and rights between the State and taxpayers, a complex legal branch even from the theoretical conception, as well as regulatory environment, since there is no consensus about the level of relationship with other branches such as Administrative Law. This article aims to clarify its epistemological affiliation, clarify the type and level of relationship with other branches of public law, and briefly study its field of action.

Based on the framework for human rights indicators for public policy, the present article aims to provide an analysis of the fiscal perspective adopted by the Ecuadorian government as a result of the April 16, 2016 earthquake, focusing particularly on its management of response to overcome this natural disaster. It is argued that this perspective has exacerbated violations to certain human rights, affected resilience-oriented capacities of the affected population, and complicated the establishment of adequate conditions for improving the situation of the affected populations particularly in the coastal areas of Muisne, Chamanga and Canoa. Utilizing both ethnographic and geo-mapping methods, the present article examines the logic behind the distinctly vertical approach to reconstruction and its effects on local populations as well as processes for reforming socio-economic fabrics.

The Ecuadorian Constitution characterizes the State as a Lay State. However, during the Constituent Assembly of 2007 three topics challenged the idea of consecrating Ecuador as a Lay State: the right to life from conception, homosexual marriage and the inclusion of God in the preamble of the Constitution. This paper reconstructs the narrative of those debates and shows how religion shaped the conversation and impacted the provisions that were finally adopted. In light of this description, it is possible to observe that state secularism in Ecuador functions more as a mirage than as a catalyst to build a liberal democracy.

This paper analyzes the sentence No. 133-17-SEP-CC that the Ecuadorian Constitutional Court knew about the violation of the fundamental rights of a male transsexual person, by the National Direction of the Civil Registry, because this institution prevented his gender change from female to male in his birth registration. The analyzes is divided based on the three legal problems that the Court determines, related to the right to effective judicial protection, the duty to motivate judgments and the right to personal identity. In addition, this paper proposes that the right to freedom be read from the republican tradition, that is, as non-domination, which would help to address cases such as the present from a broader and critical view on the role of the State in the respect of fundamental rights.

This paper shall analyze the judgment from Fernández Ortega vs. México state by the Interamerican Court for Human Rights in August 2010. The study is carried from an integral perspective that includes factors of class, language, gender, and ethnicity that exist in the social anthropology. The Fernandez case involved a sexual rape that the victim had suffered by soldiers. The victim is an indigenous woman from the Tlapaneco/Me'phaa people. This case is very important for the jurisprudence of the Interamerican Court for Human Rights. We presume, however that the Court did not understand the complex relationship between class, language, gender and ethnicity. Finally it favoured only gender perspective, sidelining all other items. Is the Gender Theory sufficient to explain sexual rape and the human rights of indigenous women?

Parting from a panoramic point of view on the Colombian state public policies on women issues, this paper aims to describe and analyze the process through which the problems of women victims of armed conflict became part of public policy in the country. The analysis is also focusing on identifying the difficulties that surrounded the emergence of this problem as a problem of public interest, and therefore allows to appreciate and discuss other processes of institutional and legal order. More specifically, the article looks forward to contribute to the study of the construction of a “State feminism”, and also to the discussion concerning the adoption of a gender perspective in human rights policies and transitional justice.