Professorship as condition for election as a Constitutional Court Justice: some very important considerations in the Guatemalan Case

Abstract

Certain interest groups call for the Constitutional Court’s justices appointed by the University of San Carlos of Guatemala to be elected solely among full-tenured professors from that Institution of Higher Learning. That Proposal is flawed, illegal and illegitimate due to lack of constitutional provision that supports it and its direct contradiction of the University´s internal regulations, of international norms and standards incorporated by the University, of foreign norms cited by the proponents themselves, of international norms referred to human rights, and of national constitutional and criminal norms. It´s become essential that Highest Constitutional Court of the Land establishes a precedent by ordering the Higher Council of The University of San Carlos of Guatemala to dutifully appoint justices based on merit, not on job class or institutional membership of the participating professors.