The constitutional efficacy of the right to defense in the protection action in Ecuador

Abstract

The design of constitutional justice in Ecuador is directed towards the protection and defense of fundamental rights through a broad catalog of jurisdictional guarantees, where the action of protection stands out for its tutelary nature and for being the one with the greatest scope in terms of rights protection. The substantiation is out of the ordinary because it does not require formalities and is substantiated under certain expedited terms established by law. However, it does not fully comply with due process in relation to the participation of the legitimate respondent. Therefore, the applicability of the right to defense in the processing of the action was analyzed in light of the lack of normative provision regarding a brief term for responding to the complaint in writing. Indeed, the scope of the research was purely descriptive. The method used was inductive-deductive to establish the presence of the right to defense as a guarantee of due process, the dogmatic-legal method to refer to the formal part of the law, and the comparative method to determine legal gaps. The lack of necessary means for preparing the response to the complaint, where the respondent can exercise their legitimate defense according to law, represents the non-observance of minimum conditions in complying with the procedural rules of due process, as the highest right of protection, where the certainty and knowledge of legal security becomes ineffective.