Constitutional problems of the per saltum

Abstract

Law No. 26.790 incorporated the per saltum to the procedure of the extraordinary federal appeal. In this way, it solves the constitutional problem that this institute had in Argentine jurisprudence, having been applied by the Supreme Court in the Dromi and González cases in clear violation of article 117 of the National Constitution. However, this institute may violate Article 8.2 h of the American Convention on Human Rights and Article 14.5 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by dispensing with the right to appeal the judgment to a higher court. Although the Supreme Court of Justice interpreted that said guarantee was of a criminal nature in rulings such as Giroldi, Casal and Abella, the Inter-American Commission and the Inter-American Court determined in various precedents the application of said guarantee to various fields: civil, labor, tax, etc. The article proposes a broad interpretation of the link between the question of fact and federal law recognized by the Court in the Ferrocarril Central Córdoba precedent in order to avoid the these constitutional objections to the aforementioned law. Likewise, it will be necessary for the Supreme Court to refrain from dismissing cases using Section 280 of the National Code of Civil and Commercial Procedure.