Claiming individual rights through a constitutional court: The example of gays in Costa Rica

International Journal of Constitutional Law

Volumn 5, Issue 2, 2007, Pages 242-257

  Wilson, Bruce M ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 34247250757     PISSN: 14742640     EISSN: 14742659     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/icon/mom010     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (107)

1. All citations to the Constitution are from the Constitution of the Republic of Costa Rica, official bilingual edition (Poder Judicial 2001).
2. JAIME MURILLO VIQUEZ, LA SALA CONSTITUCIONAL: UNA REVOLUCIÓN POLÍTICO-JURÍDICA EN COSTA RICA [THE CONSTITUTIONAL CHAMBER: A POLITICAL-JUDICIAL REVOLUTION IN COSTA RICA] (Editorial Guayacán 1994).
3. Constantino Urcuyo Fournier, La Sala Constitucional: Necesarios limites al poder [The Constitutional Chamber: Necessary Limits to Power] 3 REVISTA PARLAMENTARIA 37, 44 (1995).
4. MURILLO VÍQUEZ, supra note 2
5. Bruce M. Wilson, Changing Dynamics: The Political Impact of Costa Rica's Constitutional Court, in THE JUDICIALIZATION OF POLITICS IN LATIN AMERICA 47, 49 (Alan Angell et al. eds., Palgrave Macmillan 2005).
6. Robert Barker, Taking Constitutionalism Seriously: Costa Rica's Sala Cuarta, 6 FLORIDA J. INT'L L. 349 (1991).
7. See Bruce M. Wilson & Juan Carlos Rodríguez Cordero, Legal Opportunity Structures and Social Movements: The Effects of Institutional Change on Costa Rican Politics, 39 COMP. POL. STUD. 325 (2006). The Sala IV has heard claims related to 99 percent of the articles of the Constitution within the first ten years of its operation.
8. William Méndez, Sala IV da sentencia [Sala IV hands down judgment] LA NACIÓN, Oct. 11, 1999, available at http://www.nacion.com/ln_ee/1999/octubre/11/pais3.html.
9. Ángela Ávalos & William Méndez. Caja y Sala IV chocan por medicinas [Agency and Court clash over medicines], LA NACIÓN, Nov. 29, 1999, available at http://www.nacion.com/ln_ee/1999/noviembre/29/pais1.html.
10. On the tenth anniversary of the Sala IV in 1999, the magistrates reiterated their commitment to act as "the defender of citizens' constitutional rights." Corte Suprema de Justicia-Sala Constitucional, RESEÑA HISTÓRICA (1999), available at http://www.poder-judicial.go.cr/sala4/aniversa/ historia.html.
11. JOHN MERRYMAN, THE CIVIL LAW TRADITION: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE LEGAL SYSTEMS OF WESTERN EUROPE AND LATIN AMERICA (Stanford Univ. Press, 2d ed. 1985).
12. CHARLES EPP, THE RIGHTS REVOLUTION: LAWYERS, ACTIVISTS, AND SUPREME COURTS IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE 197 (Chicago Univ. Press 1998), draws on Madison for this argument and concludes that constitutional "rights are not gifts."
13. Robert Barker, Judicial Review in Costa Rica: Evolution and Recent Developments, 25, Paper presented at the Latin American Studies Association meeting, Miami (2000) (unpublished manuscript, on file with the author).
14. Javier Couso, The Changing Courts and Social Transformations in New Democracies, in COURTS AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION AND THE JUDICIARY (Roberto Gargarella et al. eds., Ashgate 2006) provides a clear history of the failure of constitutional rights in Latin America to become enforceable.
15. For a more detailed review of the import of constitutions in Latin America, see BRIAN LOVEMAN, THE CONSTITUTION OF TYRANNY: REGIMES OF EXCEPTION IN SPANISH AMERICA (Univ. Press 1994). Although the 1859 constitution granted the Supreme Court the power to review the constitutionality of laws and to hear appeals of habeas corpus and amparo, there were very few successful constitutional challenges. Instead, the Court consistently regarded the legislative powers of the popular branches as absolute.
16. Article 158. Article 165 states "Justices of the Supreme Court of Justice may not be suspended..." except by a "secret vote of no less than two thirds of the total justices on the Supreme Court."
17. See Carlos José Gutiérrez Gutiérrez, La constitución 50 años despues [The Constitution 50 Years On], in TEMAS CLAVES DE LA CONSTITUCIÓN POLÍTICA [KEY THEMES OF THE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION] (Carlos José Gutiérrez Gutierrez et al. eds., Investigaciones Jurídicas, S.A. 1999).
18. José Figueres, the head of the Junta, explains these actions in JOSÉ FIGUERES FERRER, EL ESPIRITU DEL 48, 260-283 (Editorial Costa Rica 1990). A web site of the same name contains much of the discussion of the acts of the Junta, at http://www.elespiritudel48.org/4802.htm.
19. These special tribunals were in contravention of article 35 of the Constitution.
20. These constitutional articles protected individuals from exile (article 32), guaranteed citizens' right of entry into Costa Rica (article 22), and guaranteed property rights and proscribed the retroactive application of laws (article 34).
21. The law that restricted the strike option for the vast majority of Costa Rican workers was finally ruled unconstitutional in 1998 by the Sala IV (Resolución No. 1317-98). See Wilson, supra note 4, at 60
22. Wilson & Rodríguez, supra note 6, at 340-341.
23. Proyecto Estado de la Nación, Resumen del anexo al capitulo 5: diez años de la sala constitucional (1989-1999) [Summary of the Appendix of Chapter Five: Ten Years of the Sala Constitucional], Consejo Nacional de Rectores (CONARE).
24. Gutiérrez, supra note 13, at 50.
25. Juan Carlos Rodríguez Cordero, Sala Constitutional y equilibrio de poderes [Constitutional Chamber and Equilibrium of Powers], in Proyecto Estado de la Nación en Desarrollo Humano Sostenible, IX Informe Estado de la Nación 2002 (CONARE 2003).
26. See, e.g., Bruce M. Wilson & Roger Handberg, From Judicial Passivity to Judicial Activism: Explaining the Change Within Costa Rica's Supreme Court, 4 NAFTA: LAW AND BUSINESS REVIEW OF THE AMERICAS, 522 (1999).
27. MURILLO VÍQUEZ, supra note 4, at 19-20.
28. Wilson & Handberg, supra note 20, at 533.
29. Historically, Supreme Court decisions in civil law systems were applied only to the case in question and were not treated as precedents for current or future similar cases. Although Costa Rica employs a civil law judicial system, decisions by the Sala IV set precedent and are binding on all other courts and agencies.
30. The Sala IV notes its function is to guarantee rights and liberties contained in the Constitution as well as human rights contained in international laws signed by governments of Costa Rica. Sala Constitucional homepage, at http://www.poder-judicial.go.cr/ salaconstitucional/generalidades.htm.
31. Ley de la Jurisdicción Constitucional. Ley No 7.135 (Oct. 11, 1989).
32. La Gaceta, No 198 (Oct. 19, 1989). Standing is very broad and includes citizens and noncitizens alike, regardless of age, gender or race.
33. The crucial role of employing an open, liberal definition of standing in allowing marginalized groups to overcome the hurdles of access to Supreme Courts is discussed with regard to India and Hungary in COURTS AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION IN NEW DEMOCRACIES: AN INSTITUTIONAL VOICE FOR THE POOR (Roberto Gargarella et al. eds., Ashgate 2006).
34. EPP, supra note 9.
35. Edge Kanyongolo & Siri Gloppen, Law and Poverty in Malawi: Toward Progressive Linkages, 5 INT'L J. CONST. L. (I·CON) 258 (2007)(in this issue).
36. See Javier Cuoso, The Judicialization of Chilean Politics: The Rights Revolution that Never Was, in THE JUDICIALIZATION OF POLITICS IN LATIN AMERICA, supra note 4.
37. See Manuel José Cepeda Espinosa, The Judicialization of Politics in Colombia, in THE JUDICIALIZATION OF POLITICS IN LATIN AMERICA, supra note 4.
38. Resolución No. 75-89.
39. In the Sala IV's first full year of operation (1990), 2,300 cases were filed; by the mid-1990s this number had grown to almost 8,000 cases per year, before leveling off at approximately 13,000 from 2002 onward. See Corte Suprema de Justicia-Sala Constitucional, Base de Datos del Centro de Documentación de la Corte Suprema de Justicia [Database of the Center for Documentation of the Supreme Court of Justice] (Corte Suprema de Justicia 2004).
40. In 2004, the last year for which data are available, these accounted for more than 85 percent of the total caseload. See Wilson, supra note 4, at 51
41. Irene Vizcaíno, Sala IV desnuda debilidades en salud, educación y ambiente [Sala IV exposes shortcomings in health, education and environment], LA NACIÓN, June 26, 2006, available at http://www.nacion.com/ln_ee/2006/junio/26/pais4.html. The new court also resolved cases expeditiously and could rule a government decision, law, or decree unconstitutional with the votes of just four (of seven) magistrates; previously it took a two-thirds supermajority of the full court (fourteen of twenty-one). The Sala IV's relatively rapid resolution of cases helped send a signal that the court was a logical and effective arena to resolve various issues.
42. THE FEDERALIST No. 78, at 465 (Alexander Hamilton) (Clinton Rossiter ed., Mentor 1961).
43. Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).
44. Gerald Rosenberg, Impact of Courts on American Life, in THE JUDICIAL BRANCH 303 (Kermit Hall & Kevin McGuire eds., Oxford Univ. Press 2005).
45. See, e.g., Carlo Guarnieri, Courts and the Marginalized: Perspectives from Continental Europe, 5 INT'L J. CONST. L. (I·CON) 187 (2007), (in this issue) (concerning the different forms, and implications, of judicial independence).
46. Ley de la Jurisdicción Constitucional, supra note 25, art. 13.
47. My intention is not to overstate the difficult situation facing gays in Costa Rica but to note that, as in many other countries, gays have experienced considerable discrimination. Conditions in Costa Rica are not as bad as they have been in some other Latin American or Caribbean countries where homosexual acts are illegal (e.g., Nicaragua) or where death squads routinely target gays and lesbians (e.g., El Salvador and Colombia). See Amy Lind, Out of the Closet and Into la Calle 30 NACLA 6-10 (1997)
48. Jeanne Carstensen, Fighting Fear in Costa Rica, 595 THE ADVOCATE 36, 36-38 (1992).
49. Homosexuales y lesbianas claman por sus derechos e igualdad [Homosexuals and Lesbians Shout for Their Rights and Equality], LA NACIÓN, June 27, 2004, available at http://nacion.com/ln_ee/2004/junio/27/ultima-cr2.html.
50. See, e.g., JACOBO SCHIFTER, LA FORMACIÓN DE UNA CONTRACULTURA: HOMOSEXUALISMO Y SIDA EN COSTA RICA (Guayacán 1989)
51. CIPAC/DDHH, Discriminación Laboral por Orientación Sexual [Labor Discrimination Due to Sexual Orientation], at http://www.cipacdh.org/derechos/da3.htm.
52. UNIMER, ENCUESTA, at http://www.nacion.co.cr/ln_ee/encuestas/unimer/grafico21.gif.
53. Andrea Gourgy, Tolerance for Gays Improving, Not Perfect, TICO TIMES, June 25, 2004, available at http://www.ticotimes.net/ archive//06_25_04_t.htm.
54. Id.
55. Francisco Madrigal, Los gays y las lesbianas en Costa Rica [Gays and Lesbians in Costa Rica] (Centro de Investigación y Promoción para América Central de Derechos Humanos (CIPAC) 2002), available at http://www.cipacdh.org/azul/glbtcr.html.
56. Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Decision TAO 15870 (Mar. 31, 2003).
57. Richard Stern, Costa Rican AIDS Patient Coalition Wins Drug "Cocktail" in High Court Ruling, 10 PSYCH. INT'L 3-4 (1999).
58. Carstensen, supra note 37, at 36.
59. The unconstitutionality argument hinged on an infringement of articles 25, 26, and 28, which guarantee a right to free association.
60. The group finally registered under the name of Asociación Triángulo Rosa (Pink Triangle Association).
61. A complete, up-to-date list of Latin American sodomy laws is available at http://www.sodomylaws.org/world/world.htm.
62. This police attitude is discussed in SCHIFTER, supra note 49, at 40
63. and JACOBO SCHIFTER, PUBLIC SEX IN LATIN SOCIETY (Haworth/Latino Press 2000).
64. Resolución No. 4732-94.
65. Legislativa de la Republica de Costa Rica, Ley General de Policía [General Police Law], No. 7410 (1994).
66. Quirine Eijkman, "Around Here I Am the Law"; Strengthening Police Officers' Compliance with the Rule of Law in Costa Rica, conference paper presented at Police Human Rights Strategies symposium, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands (Apr. 7-8, 2006) (manuscript on file with author).
67. Quirine Eijkman, To be Held Accountable: Police Accountability in Costa Rica, POLICE PRACTICE & RESEARCH 411-430 (2006).
68. The surveys were conducted between September and December 2004. In total there were 161 participating police officer students and 193 participating police officers. The sample was non-stratified; the total nonresponse was 9.44 percent. (Personal correspondence Sept. 25, 2005).
69. Gourgy, supra note 42.
70. The annual reports of the ombudsman (Defensoría de los Habitantes) are archived and available at http://www.dhr.go.cr/informe.html.
71. Carlos Arguedas Investigan a oficiales del OIJ por agresión [OIJ Officials Investigated for Aggression], LA NACIÓN, June 22, 2005, available at http://www.nacion.com/ln_ee/2005/junio/22/sucesos4.html.
72. A recent refugee claim by a gay man claiming antigay persecution if he were forced to return to Costa Rica was denied after the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board found "extensive documentary evidence indicates that there is a thriving gay community in Costa Rica, and that the community is not the target of systemic persecution by the authorities or by society at large." Decision TAO 15870, supra note 46.
73. Resolución No. 2006-07262.
74. Expediente No. 03-008127-0007-CO.
75. Resolución No. 346-94.
76. Código de Familia [Family Code] (Feb. 5, 1974), available at http://www.acnur.org/biblioteca/pdf/2300.pdf.
77. Id., art. 14.
78. CÓDIGO PENAL DE COSTA RICA [Penal Code], Ley No. 4573 (1970), available at http://www.unifr.ch/derechopenal/ legislacion/cr/cpcridx.htm.
79. The original case before the Sala IV also relied on articles 28 (freedom from persecution for the expression of opinions) and 39 (specifying that penalties can only be imposed for committing a crime); the latter was invoked to challenge the constitutionality of article 176 of the Penal Code. The Sala IV refused to hear the case against article 176, but heard the other elements of the claim. Resolución 2003-09237.
80. See Sala IV hará audiencia para ver matrimonio gay [Sala IV Will Hold Hearings to Look at Gay Marriage], GAY COSTA RICA, Oct. 26, 2005, available at http://www.gaycostarica.com.
81. Groups agitating against the same-sex marriage issues include the Movimiento Familiar Cristiano (Christian Family Movement) and U.S.-based Enfoque a la Familia (Focus on the Family). These two groups state their agreement with the Catholic Church hierarchy's position on gays: "We respect homosexuals as people but we don't agree with their attempt to impose a gay agenda on the country. Moral values are fundamental." Yuri Jiménez & Ivannia Varela, La escalada homosexual [The Homosexual Ascension], REVISTA DOMINICAL, Aug. 24, 2003, available at http://www.nacion.com/dominical/2003/agosto/24/dominicalO.html, last visited February 26, 2007.
82. GAY COSTA RICA, supra note 64.
83. In 1995, Sweden promulgated a same-sex unions law, while the Netherlands and Belgium (2002) were the first to recognize same-sex marriage. More recently Spain, Canada, and South Africa legalized same-sex marriage, as did the California legislature (only to be vetoed by the governor). Other countries are considering legislation to legalize some form of same-sex marriage, which is soon to be legal in U.K. and other states. (In the U.S., Massachusetts has legalized gay marriage by judicial decision, while Connecticut, New Jersey, and Vermont have legislated recognition of civil unions between homosexuals).
84. Movimiento Diversidad [Diversity Movement] sent a questionnaire to all fourteen presidential candidates to ascertain their views on gay and lesbian issues, including the question of same-sex marriage. Only six responded (including the leading candidates), and none of these supported same-sex marriage.
85. One web site, http://www.gaycostarica.com, did announce the Sala IV's public hearing on same-sex marriage but did not suggest people show their support for same-sex marriage at the Court, nor did it report that the hearing was postponed.
86. AL DÍA/DEMOSCOPIA poll, Mar. 6, 2005, available at http://www.aldia.co.cr/ad_ee/2005/marzo/06/GRAFICOS06-03.jpg.
87. Jiménez & Varela, supra note 69.
88. See, e.g., Resolución No. 1993-00316, Resolución No. 1770-94, Resolución No. 1045-94, and Resolución No. 4883-97.
89. Resolución No. 2006007262.
90. Id. at 12-21 (Vargas Benavides) and 21-24 (Jinesta Lobo).
91. See note 88, infra.
92. A significant and (in)famous case of the Sala IV reversing itself concerned the constitutionality of a prohibition on presidential reelection. The Sala IV first heard the case in 2000 when it upheld the prohibition (Resolución No. 7818-00). Yet, two years later, the Sala IV agreed to re-hear the case. In Resolución No. 2003-02771, the court reversed itself and held the reelection ban unconstitutional, thus allowing former presidents to seek reelection after sitting out two terms in office.
93. Homosexuales recurrirán a Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos tras fallo de Sala IV [Homosexuals Will Resort to Inter-American Court of Human Rights after Failure at the Sala IV], LA NACIÓN, May 24, 2006, available at http://nacion.com/ln_ee/2006/mayo/24/ultima-sr715782.html.
94. See Robert Baker, Judicial Review in Costa Rica: Evolution and Recent Developments, Paper presented at the Latin American Studies Conference (2000)
95. Bruce M. Wilson et al., The Best Laid Schemes... Gang aft a-gley: Judicial Reform in Latin America - Evidence from Costa Rica, 36 J. LATIN AMER. STUD. 507 (2004).
96. See Minister of Home Affairs & Another v. Fourie & Others 2006 (3) BCLR 355 (CC) (S. Afr.).
97. Irene Vizcaíno, Sala IV cierra puertas a matrimonio entre homosexuals [The Sala IV Closes Doors to Homosexual Marriage], LA NACIÓN, May 24, 2006, available at http://nacion.com/ln_ee/2006/mayo/24/paisO.html.
98. Movimiento Diversidad presenta proyecto de ley para uniones civiles homosexuals [Movimiento Diversidad Presents a Project for Homosexual Civil Unions Law], GAY COSTA RICA, Sept. 5, 2006, available at http://www.gaycostarica.com.
99. This case is discussed in Homosexual reclama pensión de ex compañero fallecido [Homosexual Claim for Pension of Former Companion Fails], LA NACIÓN, Feb. 20, 2005, available at http://www.nacion.com/ln_ee/2005/febrero/20/ ultima-ce15.html.
100. Expediente No. 03-010581-0007-CO, filed Oct. 9, 2003.
101. In 1983, when Costa Rica's first AIDS-related death was recorded, the Caja Costarricense de Seguros Sociales (Costa Rican Social Security Agency, or CCSS), the agency that oversees the state-controlled medical system, refused to buy and distribute any medications to treat a disease that they viewed as fatal and incurable; some doctors in the state-funded hospital system refused to accept AIDS patients. Within two years of the Sala IV's creation, a case was filed against the CCSS demanding that it fund anti-AIDS medications. At that time, the Court accepted the CCSS's argument that the medications were not a cure, were exorbitantly expensive, and would place an undue financial burden on the agency, and so ruled against the petitioner, Jacobo Schifter Sikora (Resolución No. 280-92). But this did not foreclose future litigation: Five years later, a PLWA, Antonio Matamoros Sánchez, filed a case against the Calderón Guardia Hospital for refusing to treat him. The Sala IV ruled that the hospitals must treat AIDS patients as they would any other patient. Resolución No. 6761-97. Later that year, a fledgling AIDS support group mounted a case on behalf of William García Álvarez, a seriously ill PLWA, claiming his right to access to antiretroviral medications (Expediente No. 5778-V-97 . The small AIDS group faxed to the Court García's doctors' notes daily detailing his deteriorating condition. It took the Court just three weeks to decide in his favor, mandating the CCSS to provide him free access to antiretroviral medications (Resolución No. 5934-97 . The Court based its ruling in part, on article 21, which states "life is inviolable," construing this to encompass an "assured right to life and health." Id. at 3. The Court made it clear that its ruling was not confined to the facts of García's case but should, henceforth, be applied to all people similarly situated. Within a year, over 350 PLWA had gained free access to the medicines, and by 2005 more than 2,050 were being treated with CCSS-supplied antiretroviral drugs.
102. Francisco Madrigal, El Sida en Costa Rica [AIDS in Costa Rica] (Centro Cultural de la Diversidad Sexual de Costa Rica), available at http://www.cipacdh.org/sida/va8.htm
103. Marcela Cantero, Antirretrovirales reducen mortalidad de ticos con sida [Antiretrovirals Reduce Mortality of Costa Ricans with AIDS], LA NACIÓN, Nov. 16, 2005, available at http://www.nacion.com/ln_ee/2005/noviembre/16/aldeaO.html. CCSS compliance with the Sala IV's ruling may account for a recent finding by the CCSS reported in La Nación that mortality rates for PLWA have declined more than 80 percent since it was handed down in 1997.
104. Interestingly, the two AIDS decisions of the Sala IV spurred the Legislative Assembly to pass Law. No. 7771 Ley general del VIH-SIDA [General Law on HIV/AIDS] in 1998, making it illegal to discriminate on the basis of PLWA status or sexual orientation (article 48 of the same law). Available at http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/Organizations/ healthnet/_Spanish/HIV/docs/leygeneral.html.
105. Yuri Jiménez & Ivannia Varela. Batallas y logros [Battles and Profits], in REVISTA DOMINICAL, Sept. 3, 2003, available at http://nacion.com/dominical/2003/agosto/24/ domicalO.html.
106. Juzgado da custodia de niño a un travestique lo crió. [Court Gives Transvestite Custody of Boy She Has Raised], LA NACI_cON, Sept. 29, 2004, available at http://nacion.com/ln_ee/2004/septiembre/29/ultimatima-ce17.html.
107. Jiménez & Varela, supra note 88.