Ecuador’s High Court Halts Two “Urgent” Laws — And a Core Crime Strategy

Ecuador’s Constitutional Court didn’t just void two laws; it stopped a governing strategy. On September 26, 2025, the Court struck down the Organic Law of National Solidarity and the Organic Law of Public Integrity—flagship “urgent economic” bills pushed by the ruling Acción Democrática Nacional (ADN) bloc.

Reason: the Executive and Congress bundled unrelated topics, rushed debate, and misused the fast-track “economic urgency” route. In plain terms, the rules for making rules were broken.

What fell is concrete. Together, the two laws had rewritten 34 provisions of the criminal code. Many were built for a country living under an “internal armed conflict” label: tougher penalties and new offenses tied to organized crime, weapons, narcotics, and the hydrocarbons sector, plus procedural shortcuts for authorities.

With the rulings, those changes no longer apply. Police, prosecutors, judges, and prisons must revert to the previous framework. The rollback is not identical for both laws. The Solidarity Law is treated as if it never validly existed from the day it was published.

The Public Integrity Law loses force going forward, but the Court carved out targeted retroactivity in criminal matters so that harsher sentences introduced by that law can be rolled back to earlier standards.

Ecuador’s Court Reinforces Rule of Law Amid Urgent Crime Bills

The story behind the story is the clash between speed and the Constitution. Facing crime and economic pressures, the government tried to move fast by packing many ideas into two must-pass, urgent bills.

The Court said urgency can’t replace unity of subject, transparency, and real deliberation. That means if the administration wants parts of these measures—on crime, energy, or procurement—it must refile them as ordinary, single-topic bills and win a proper debate.

Why this matters beyond Ecuador: Investors, NGOs, and regional governments watch how countries fight crime without bending the rules.

This decision reasserts the basics: clear processes, narrowly tailored laws, and legal certainty. The security agenda isn’t over—it just has to be done the constitutional way.

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