The Historical Debt: The Elusive Agrarian Jurisdiction in Colombia

Abstract

This study reviews the past, present, and future of agrarian jurisdiction in the context of the agrarian reforms in Colombia with a focus on violent conflicts in rural areas. The methodology used is that of a multi-method case study and legal historic analysis. The study shows how, without an agrarian jurisdiction, the Colombian legal system faces a crisis of legitimacy, lacks effectiveness, and creates new interethnic rural conflicts. The study also evaluates the country’s recent legislative proposal in the light of constitutional law, the stated goals of the 2016 Peace Agreement, the Sustainable Development Goals and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants (UNDROP). It offers recommendations on how to enforce the rule of law in agrarian issues, in order to overcome systematic violations of human, economic, social, and environmental rights of vulnerable rural populations: recommendations to be taken into consideration by the legal community and the international partners of the country’s comprehensive agrarian reform program.