LAWS HIERARCHY

Before dealing with the subject of constitutionalizing the human rights and by the
nature of the investigation that is taking place, it becomes necessary, at first, to
approach hierarchy norms.
The hierarchy of legal norms is the gradation that by order of importance keeps
among them, the precepts of a legal organization. Ruano Cataaza, indicates: The
hierarchy of the legal norms is determined by the importance that each one has in
relation to the other legal norms. Y that this importance is subjected to formal
aspects in terms of its creation, its general content, especial and development of
application. This problem has been masterfully addressed by one of the brilliant
minds that the world of judicial sciences and philosopher Hans Kelsen and in base in
his famous theory is that this investigation is based, summarizing it.
Theory of the law hierarchy of Hans Kelsen
According to Hans Kelsen, The law or legal norms, are put into a hierarchy in
the follow way organized and staggered: first are constitutional laws; under
this ordinary law; under this regulation laws and at last individualized.

Constitutional Laws
For Hans Kelsen the laws of higher hierarchy are the called constitutional
laws, this can be explained saying that are all those norms that develop
fundamental and natural principles that rule all the law system, having
within the call of the spirit of an organized man in a State y the way of
acting in front of those, declaring universal and accepted principle and
that are considered principal and fundamental laws.
The constitutional laws in our law system are made by a Legislative Organ
that is temporary and independent to the rest of permanent organism of
the State, which is denominated in our legal system as National
Constituent Assembly ; this legal entity creator, is considered to have, at
the moment of making the Magna Carta and other constitutional laws, the
legitimate feeling of the population in general, by which is elected directly
by the same people, to create normative bodies that will be the
foundation of the legal system of the State and will govern at the same
time the other laws of lower legal hierarchy.
Constitutional Laws

They are such important laws about constitutional Guatemalan right, duties of the
state, human rights, family rights, cultural and indigenous communities rights and
other social rights; they are dictated by the National Constituent Assembly.
The constitutional laws in Guatemala are:
The Political Constitution of the Republic of Guatemala
Ley de Libre Emisin del Pensamiento
Ley Electoral y de Partidos Polticos
Ley del Orden Pblico
Ley de Amparo, Exhibicin Personal y de Constitucionalidad

International Treeties
They are instruments or regional and universal character, in which two or more
countries make notice of agreements to which they have arrived after previous
negotiations, these agreements are or mandatory observation and application for
the countries that accept and ratify them.

Convencin Americana de los Derechos Humanos, 25 de mayo de 1978

Tratados de Libre Comercio
Convencin de los Derechos del Nino
Convencin para la Proteccin de las Obras Literarias y Artsticas

Ordinary Laws
Following the theory of Hans Kelsen, in terms of the normative law, after the
constitutional law we find the ordinary laws, which develop and describe the
content of those, that hold the principles of constitutional order. These unlike the
first ones, in terms of its creation, are created by a permanent and specialized
organism of the State, in the case of Guatemala is the Congress of the Republic,
which issues laws under the called legislative process, which is a group of steps or
stages that have to be complied for an initiative becomes a project of law and
therefore a penalized and current Law is constituted in the country, which has the
characteristic of having a mandatory compliance and of general observance.
As example, within the Guatemalan legal system there are, among others, the
following ordinary laws:

Ley del Organismo Judicial, Decreto 2-89

Cdigo Penal, Decreto 17-73
Cdigo Procesal Penal, Decreto 51-92

Cdigo
Cdigo
Cdigo
Cdigo
Cdigo

Civil, Decreto Ley 106

Procesal Civil y Mercantil, Decreto 107
de Trabajo, Decreto 1441
de Comercio, Decreto 2-70
Tributario, Decreto 6-91

Organic Laws
They are also constituted as ordinary laws and they regulate the functioning and
structure of an organ of the State, among them we can find: La Ley Orgnica de la
Universidad de San Carlos; Ley Orgnica del Instituto Guatemalteco de Seguridad
Social; Ley Orgnica del Ministerio Pblico, etc.
Decree - Law
Lastly the Decree laws are ordinary norms of exceptional character as for their
creation since they emanate of the Executive Organism with value and
effectiveness of the current law. Among these we can find: Ley de Orden Pblico,
Article 183 subsection e) of the Political Constitution of the Republic, also the Codes
issued by the Chiefs of State during the regimes of ipso in which laws have been
decreed, such are the cases of the Civil Code, Decree Law 106 and the Procedural
Civil and Merchant Code, Decree Law 107.
Other Ordinary Laws:
Cdigo de Trabajo
Ley de Servicio Civil
Ley de Proteccin a la Niez y la Adolescencia
Ley Orgnica del IGSS
Ley de Desarrollo Social
Ley de Acceso a la Informacin Pblica
Cdigo Municipal
Reglamento de la Ley Orgnica del Presupuesto
Ley de Educacin Nacional
Regulatory Laws
It is the one that widens, clarifies or details any article or any law that, by its
content, requires a bigger juridical explanation. They are laws that, as the name
says, regulate the fine details of other laws, usually of articles or fractions of articles
of the constitution. They are created when the law explicitly says to refer to the
correspondent regulatory law to know how something is going to be done, or when
it is necessary to specify how something is going to be done when the law orders it
in a single line; this avoids interpretation problems and habilitates authorities to
comply with this mandate.

They can be put into two categories: executive and internal of a state institution.
In the executive regulatory laws, the regulatory functions falls constitutional on the
President of the Republic, which is why he is the one who issues them through the
different ministries of the State and these regulations, have the purpose of
explaining and facilitating the application of ordinary laws. Some examples of these
are Reglamento de la Policia Nacional Civil, Reglamento de Trnsito, Decreto 32-92
del Congreso de la Repblica.

a.Political Constitution of the Republic

of Guatemala
In reference to the internal regulations
of each institution, these rules or guidelines

that are decreed within a state institution, with the purpose of regulating the
structure and functions that the institution develops an example would be the
Congress of the Republic that has its own intern regulation.

(International Treaties ratified by

Guatemala in the aspects of Human
We can also classify them as executives, independent of need.
Rights)
Individualized Laws

They are the Resolutions, Contracts or Sentences that affect a person or a group of
determined people. They usually derive from the regulatory laws.

b.Constitutional Laws

c. Ordinary Laws (Legislative Organ)

d.Decree-Laws (Executive Organ)
e.Regulations

f.

Individualized Norms