Antinomia entre el CONA y la LOAM sobre la fijación de pensión alimenticia y de alimentos congruos.

Abstract

This research examines the legal antinomy that arises in Ecuadorian law between the adequate maintenance regime provided for elderly parents in the Organic Law on Older Adults and the child support system for minor children regulated by the Code on Children and Teenagers. While the LOAM provides for adequate maintenance aimed at ensuring dignified and proportional living conditions, the CONA establishes maintenance payments aimed primarily at meeting the basic needs of subsistence and comprehensive development of the minor. Although children, adolescents, and older adults have equal constitutional status under Article 35 of the Constitution of the Republic, in judicial practice there are interpretive tensions and dissimilar applications that make it difficult to harmonize the two regimes when maintenance obligations coincide. This creates a practical antinomy regarding decisions that prioritize one regime over another, omit the importance of family responsibilities, or apply standardized criteria that do not allow for the individual assessment of a specific case. Among these and other factors, the use of forms to set child support payments aggravates the conflict by limiting individualized reasoning and reducing constitutional deliberation, thus respecting due process. The study is contained a constitutional approach between the LOAM and the CONA, through analysis of the regulatory framework, the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court, motivation, equality, and non-discrimination. Based on this, an assessment is made of the extent to which the application of the CONA and the LOAM guarantees the right to food for both vulnerable groups or, on the contrary, generates violations that compromise effective judicial protection and undermine legal certainty.