Abstract
This paper discusses the decision of the Chilean Constitutional Court, Case No. 14.904-2023 INA, dated October 24, 2024, which ruled on a request for inapplicability due to unconstitutionality with respect to Article 51 of Law No. 20.283 on Native Forest Recovery and Forestry Development. The sentence addresses the friction between environmental preservation as the purpose of the preventive principle of environmental law and the principle of proportionality in the application of sanctions. The majority of the ministers maintain that the rule passes the test of proportionality in the abstract, as it imposes severe but appropriate sanctions for the protection of environmental heritage. The dissent, on the other hand, emphasizes that the preservation of environmental heritage is also part of the social function of property, which cannot operate as an absolute limit justifying rigid sanctions, pointing out that proportionality is an indispensable standard for safeguarding due process and the essential content of fundamental rights. Ultimately, the case illustrates the debate on the “limits of limits” in property law and its necessary harmonization with environmental protection.
References
Covarrubias Cuevas, I. (2017). El Principio de Proporcionalidad en la jurisprudencia del Tribunal Constitucional Federal alemán: más allá de Alexy. Revista Ius et Praxis, 24(3), 477-524.
Duguit, L. (1987). Las transformaciones generales del Derecho privado desde el Código de Napoleón. Traducción de Carlos Posada. Edeval.
Enteiche Rosales, N. (2017). Las Sanciones Administrativas. El Problema de la Proporcionalidad. Tirant Lo Blanch.
Gómez González, R. F. (2021). Infracciones y Sanciones Administrativas. Ediciones DER.
Martínez García, J. I. (1994). La Función Social del Derecho de Propiedad en la Teoría de Luhmann. En El sistema Económico de la Constitución Española, XV Jornadas de Estudio, Vol. I. Centro de Publicaciones del Ministerio de Justicia.
Pereira Menaut, C. (1998). Teoría Constitucional. Editorial Jurídica Conosur.
Queirolo Finkelstein, M. T. (2010). El Rol de los Monumentos Naturales en la Función Social Ambiental del Derecho de Propiedad. Revista de Derecho Ambiental Justicia Ambiental, (2), 159-176.
Sands, P. (2003). Principles of International Environmental Law (2ª ed.). Cambridge University Press.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2025 Revista Jurídica Digital UANDES