Principio de precaución en la acción de tutela. Casos ambientales colombianos

Abstract

The precautionary principle aims to prevent damage to or impairment of the environment, a legal good of maximum protection, due to the violation to which it is subject and its relationship with the existence of human life. Its introduction to national regulations has allowed the granting of interpretation tools to judicial operators at the moment of unleashing environmental legal problems. Therefore, it is important to analyze how it has been applied and developed in the action of protection by the Constitutional Court. To solve this problem, the methodology of the case study was taken, in which different judicial rulings were selected to be able to determine the hermeneutic postulates of the application of the precautionary principle, in order to establish possible solutions to future cases and analyze their impact within the solution of these environmental problems. From this analysis we conclude the importance of the approach of the precautionary principle to strengthen the jurisprudential guidelines allowing to solve environmental cases in different constitutional actions, in which the environmental commitment of Colombia in front of international commitments is demonstrated. This article represents an important value for academics, judicial operators, lawyers and plaintiffs, by delimiting the different scenarios of application of the precautionary principle, highlighting the parameters of interpretation and contributing to the argumentative bases to sustain positions in environmental cases.