Límites del hábeas corpus correctivo frente al principio de seguridad jurídica en el Ecuador.

Abstract

This thesis examines the "habeas corpus correctivo" (corrective habeas corpus) in Ecuador — a constitutional remedy meant to protect the liberty, physical integrity, and dignity of incarcerated persons, particularly given Ecuador's prison crisis. Its central argument is that current law (the Constitution and the Organic Law on Jurisdictional Guarantees and Constitutional Control, LOGJCC) fails to define clear admissibility and application criteria for this remedy, leaving judges to decide case by case and producing inconsistent rulings that undermine the constitutional principle of legal certainty ("seguridad jurídica," Art. 82). Chapter I lays out the justification and legal problem: the tension between immediate protection of fundamental rights and the judicial system's need for coherence and predictability. Chapter II covers the legal foundations of corrective habeas corpus (Art. 89 of the Constitution; Arts. 43-46 of the LOGJCC) and the principle of legal certainty, drawing on Constitutional Court rulings and domestic legal scholarship. Chapter III explores the tension between these two principles in more depth, includes a comparative look at Colombia and Peru (both of which have more developed proportionality standards), and closes with a concrete legislative reform proposal for LOGJCC Articles 43-45: assigning exclusive jurisdiction to penitentiary-guarantee judges, adding a new Article 44-A that sets out admissibility criteria (generalized risk backed by medical, psychological, or social reports, or violation of a protected legal interest), and requiring judges to provide express reasoning under Art. 76 of the Constitution. The thesis concludes that the relationship between corrective habeas corpus and legal certainty is not an unsolvable conflict, but one that calls for clear regulation capable of balancing both principles — producing equal treatment under the law and restoring confidence in Ecuador's justice system.