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Spanish to English translations [PRO] Social Sciences - Law (general) / Corte Constitucional, Colombia
Spanish term or phrase:ponencia
I think there must be a specific term OTHER than "report" in reference to this. It appears to be a written document that a SINGLE higher court judge presents to the entire court for its evaluation. Would this qualify, then, as an "opinion"? It's presented BEFORE the court makes a decision. I'm so lost here!
El magistrado Luis Guillermo Guerrero les presentó a sus compañeros de la Corte Constitucional la ponencia sobre la ley que creó la Justicia Especial para la Paz, documento que será debatido y sobre el que la Sala Plena debe tomar una decisión en los próximos días.
La Corte Constitucional aprobó la ponencia que tumba el proyecto que reducía del 12% al 4% los aportes de salud de los pensionados. La ponencia había sido presentada por la Magistrada Cristina Pardo, exsecretaria jurídica de la Presidencia.
La Corte Constitucional de Colombia rechazó hoy una ponencia contraria al matrimonio de parejas del mismo sexo, lo que abre la puerta a la unión legal de homosexuales, informaron hoy a Efefuentes judiciales.
Explanation: I think this is quite closely analogous to the procedure of the US Supreme Court, for example. After oral argument has been heard there is a conference, and responsibility for drafting a written opinion expressing the majority view is assigned to one of the justices. The draft opinion is circulated and may be amended before it is finalised as the majority opinion. Other justices may draft concurring or dissenting opinions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procedures_of_the_Supreme_Cour...
This procedure can perfectly well apply to a constitutional court pronouncing on the constitutionality of a law, as in the case of Colombia:
“The Colombian Constitution authorizes the Constitutional Court to "decide unconstitutionality suits filed by citizens against laws" or executive decrees. […] A justice of the Constitutional Court serves as rapporteur. […] Following this evidentiary phase, the rapporteur prepares a draft opinion, upon which her colleagues must deliberate for at least five days, except in cases of national emergency. […] The Constitutional Court decides by majority and dissenters may file a separate opinion. If a majority rejects the rapporteur's position, the Chief Justice may call upon another justice to draft an opinion for the tribunal. The final decision appears, along with any concurrences or dissents, in the Constitutional Court's Gazette.” https://opencommons.uconn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=12... (pp. 218-219, pp. 36-37 of file)
Sorry, I didn't have time to continue the discussion last night, Charles. Yes, that's really all I was getting at. I later looked for the term in Alcaraz, Hughes and Campos' Dictionary of Legal Terms and they have it as, among other things "delivery of the opinion of a bench of judges" and as "leading opinion", and then go on to describe the "ponente" as "judge responsible for drafting the leading opinion for the consideration of his/her fellow judges", with "ponente de la mayoría" as "responsible for drafting the opinion approved by the majority".
However, in Becerra (which relates specifically to Mexico), he in fact refers to the ponencia as "preliminary draft the court's opinion; draft opinion on a case tried before a collegiate court which is written by one of the judges or justice (called magistrado ponente, ministro ponente or simply ponente) for consideration by the full court at the time a decision is to be reached).
So, in all, your translation fits perfectly here. Perhaps we can say that it is a draft opinion at first but then becomes simply one of the "opinions" (and usually refers to the majority one) after being incorporated into the judgment.
I believe it's true, however, that concurring and dissenting opinions do constitute "jurisprudencia"; at least, I can recall reading/translating judgments in which some element of the concurring/dissenting opinion of Justice X in Sentencia TC 000 was quoted and used as part of an argument. So I accept the distinction you're making between the ponencia and the judgment.
Well, I suppose strictly speaking that the sentencia includes both the approved ponencia and any concurring or dissenting opinions, but the approved ponencia, written by the ponente (or usually, as you say, by his/her clerk) — the final majority opinion — is the court's judgment, because in so far as the other opinions published with it differ from it they do not take precedence over it.
OK, I think we're more or less in agreement. It's a question of terminology. In Spain, and I presume in Colombia, when the "ponencia" has been voted on and approved in plenary session it becomes the "sentencia". In any collegiate court the "sentencia" often (perhaps usually) doesn't represent the unanimous view of the court, and dissents are quite common, but it is nevertheless the final judgment of the court. It started life as a "ponencia", but once the case is concluded it's not called that any more; it's cited as Sentencia TC 000/0000, and the ponente is the justice who wrote it.
I don't mean to say that it's the final opinion (although it can be). I'm just saying that while it obviously goes through drafting stages, the "ponencia", even after being voted on, is still a "ponencia" (which is why citations for supreme court decisions usually mention a "ponente", i.e., the person who drafted the opinion that the majority agreed with). Obviously it's not final until voted on, so yes, you're right, here they'e referring to a draft opinion, but when voted on it doesn't become the judgment of the court, it becomes the majority opinion unless there are no other opinions (dissenting or concurring), in which case I suppose they're good to go with just that one as the judgment, if you see what I mean.
Well, in the SCOTUS of course the word "ponencia" doesn't arise. But take Spain. The Catalan Estatut case, which was before the Spanish TC for four years, ended up having seven ponencias (that word was used), written by different justices. Numbers 1-6 were voted on and rejected by the Pleno. The "ponencia" referred to in this text on the Colombian TC is a draft, without question. It hasn't yet been debated or voted on, and if the vote goes against it another will have to be written. The ponencia, once approved by vote in plenary session, becomes the judgment of the court and ceases to be a mere draft. But a ponencia is not per se a final majority opinion.
Yes, but it works the same way in the SCOTUS. The opinion writing judge (usually their clerk in fact) writes the opinion (a draft), then presents it to the other judges, who can then suggest changes or, if these differences can't be resolved, they can write dissenting or concurring opinions. The "ponencia" still ends up being the final "opinion" of the majority, not a draft.
Definitions: Ponencia. Funciones del ponente. Informe o proyecto de resolución que presenta a la discusión de sus colegas. Ponente. En los tribunales colegiados del orden judicial, el magistrado que, por turno, sigue de cerca el trámite de una causa, dirige las pruebas y redacta un proyecto de resolución que somete a la aprobación o modificación de sus compañeros de tribunal o sala. Ossorio, Manuel: Diccionario de Ciencias Jurídicas, Políticas y Sociales, 30ª edición, Editorial Heliasta, Buenos Aires, 2004
Francois Boye United States Local time: 14:15 Native speaker of: French PRO pts in category: 167
Notes to answerer
Asker: So your suggestion for the first example would be "Judge Luis Guillermo Guerrero presented his fellow Constitutional Court judges with a communication on the law..."
?
Have you ever seen "communication" used in this context before?
Explanation: "paper" in much the same sense as "academic paper" offered for pier review.
Jennifer Levey Chile Local time: 14:15 Specializes in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 545
Notes to answerer
Asker: Robin, can you cite any website where a higher court judge presents a "paper" for the review of his/her fellow judges in the evaluation of a specific case? Thanks in advance!
peer agreement (net): -1
