ANDEAN COMMON MARKET, COURT OF JUSTICE

Abstract

This chapter describes the background and the structure of court of justice of Andean common market. Article 23 of the Cartagena Agreement, by which the Andean Common Market was created, envisaged a system for the settlement of disputes that consisted of the progressive phases of negotiation, good offices, conciliation, and mediation, and arbitration. Basically, it drew upon the analogous mechanism of Latin American Free Trade Association, and reproduced the latter a limitations, and inconveniences within the framework of a more complex economic and juridical system. It soon became apparent that this system was inappropriate. In its Sixth Period of Extraordinary Sessions, the Commission of the Cartagena Agreement requested that the Junta prepare the necessary studies for the creation of a Cartagena Agreement Court. The Court is to be composed of five judges, who must be nationals of the member States, of high moral reputation, and able to meet the standards required for appointment to the highest judicial offices in their respective countries, or they must be juriconsults of recognized competence.