Constitutional Analysis of Legal Certainty in Disciplinary Proceedings of Military Training Schools in the Province of Santa Elena, Ecuador

Abstract

This research provides a comprehensive and exhaustive analysis of the disciplinary regime applied within military training institutions in the province of Santa Elena, Republic of Ecuador. The central objective is to evaluate the conventional and constitutional compatibility of these administrative sanctioning procedures against the fundamental principles of legal certainty and due process, as enshrined in the Ecuadorian Constitution and international human rights instruments. Utilizing a qualitative, dogmatic, and hermeneutical legal approach, the study relies on a systematic review of internal military regulations, specialized doctrinal literature on punitive administrative law, and fundamentally, the binding case law of the Constitutional Court of Ecuador and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The findings demonstrate the persistence of complex structural tensions between the operational requirements of military hierarchy and minimum constitutional standards. These inconsistencies manifest in the frequent deployment of overly broad or open-ended infraction categories, significant technical deficiencies in the logical reasoning of sanction decisions, and factual restrictions on the right to defense under accelerated procedural timelines. The study concludes that the constitutional rule of law mandates a comprehensive reform of internal disciplinary manuals to effectively subordinate military authority to the principle of strict legality.