Principles and values of constitutional indigenous law in Colombia

Abstract

This article discusses and differentiates the true meaning of indigenous law from customs and practices as an aboriginal system1 based on a review and interpretation of the set of constitutional dogmas from three different perspectives: An external perspective - positive law - in the form of a description of the rules or semantics of the constitution; a syncretic perspective - Nuevo Derecho Mayor Constitucional (New Constitutional Higher Law) (Benavides, 2009) - based on a constitutional axiological interpretation as a standard of unrelenting communication and dialog-based integration of both different and equal cultures; and the raison d’être of law itself - Constitutional Higher Law (Alpala, 2008) - taking values and principles of cultural diversity and aboriginal culture to the new transforming constitutionalism of jurisprudential precedent and alignment of nature as a principle-value. The basic source of indigenous constitutional principles and axiology is identified from the regulatory system - taking nature as a superior value, principle, and reason for aboriginal law based on the qualitative research methodology and the weighting method, and axiological and principle balance, among others, to syncretic law, and the need to discover the aboriginal approach of each people to produce major constitutional or autochthonous law as a sine-qua-non requirement for a judicial decision and the authentic expression of the justice of indigenous authorities in order to understand the systemic diversity of indigenous norms and the exceptional syncretic law.