Commentary Amnesty Law (Law 1820 of 30 December 2016)

Commentary Amnesty Law (Law 1820 of 30 December 2016)

The implementation of the Peace Agreement signed between the Colombian Government and FARC-EP guerrilla group on December 30 2016, included the approval of Law 1820, also known as the Amnesty Law. The law regulates the amnesty conceded to the FARC-EP guerrilla group, as well as the special and differential treatment of members of the Public Forces and other State agents. Law 1820 involves a number of procedural and substantial topics, and must be applied by both regular criminal justice institutions and those pertaining to the new Special Jurisdiction for Peace.

This law represents one of the pillars of the implementation of the Peace Agreement, and it constitutes a novel sui generis law, marking a milestone in the country’s armed conflict-related legislative history and with regards similar experiences of conflict termination in other regions of the world, which have also articulated different mechanisms of transitional justice. However, Law 1820 is rather complex and the interpretation of many of its dispositions requires technical knowledge of different branches of the law, beyond Colombian criminal law, among them the International Humanitarian Law, Human Rights and the International Criminal Law. As such, the aim of the project is to provide a theoretical-practical tool to guide judicial operators and, in general, people interested in understanding its meaning and scope. For this to happen, a collective publication is being created by over ten authors who are Colombian experts in the different areas of Law relevant to the context.

The methodology and presentation of the final product is that of commentary. In such types of work, each author analyses one or more provisions of the specific normative framework (law, code, etc.), for which he or she systematises and provides an account of the relevant jurisprudence for each legal regulation as well as the most important doctrinal discussions. The purpose of this is, first of all, to explain each of the articles pertaining to Law 1820, given that many are complex, long, and refer to a number of different topics at the same time. Measures are also undertaken to anticipate possible problems that may arise in the interpretation and application of each regulation, as well as gaps and contradictions. Different types of inputs are considered such as, for example, the documents pertaining to the Law’s legislative process, experiences of other amnesties previously granted in Colombia and national and international jurisprudence. The analysis is also expected to include the Constitutional Court’s short-term decision on the Law. As such, it will be possible to provide a general and systematic view of Law 1820, at the same time as discussing details and specific problems. The end is to open a technical debate on the Amnesty Law and set out new reflections to facilitate its application.