Limits to the Power of Constitutional Reform: Formal and Substantive Limits to the Power of Constitutional Reform in Colombia

This article has as its central topic the identification of the limits to the power of constitutional reform, determined both the formal limits, as substantive or material, the first ones referring to the procedure to be followed by the reforming body in order to advance the constitutional reforms and the second ones referring to the content in itself of the reform and the competence of the reforming body to start to work on it, therefore, once these limits have been identified, the Constitutional Substitution Theory developed by the Constitutional Court is applied, to Legislative Act 01 of 2020 which removed the prohibition of life imprisonment and established the reviewable life imprisonment when a child or adolescent is a victim of intentional homicide, carnal access that involves violence or is put in inability to resist or is unable to resist, reaching the conclusion that this was a reform contrary to the essential and defining principles of the Political Constitution, reason why it was declared inexequible.