Felipe Riesco spoke in the webinar of the Chilean Association of Environmental Law (Achidam), about the Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean, better known as the Escazú Agreement, and the decision of the Chilean Government to suspend the signing of the Agreement.

Felipe’s presentation aimed to establish that, although the Escazú Treaty is clearly not self-executing, in light of what is established in Article 4, Number 3 of the same Agreement, and that there is no rule in international law that establishes the self-enforceability of international treaties, the jurisprudence of our courts of justice clearly shows that they consider that they are self-enforceable, which gives the judges enormous power by directly applying the rules of the treaties and by not applying the norms or provisions of the domestic legal system that they consider to be contrary to the provisions - and even the principles - of international treaties. All of the above creates a serious problem of democratic legitimacy, destroys the system of distribution of competencies among the different powers of the State established in the Constitution, violates the principle of democratic guarantee, entails great legal uncertainty and violates the Constitution.