Guarantees of administrative due process in light of Judgment 2032-20 of the Ecuadorian Constitutional Court

Abstract

This scientific article thoroughly examines the formal and substantive configuration of the right to due process within the administrative sanctioning regimes applied in higher education centers across the province of Santa Elena. The analytical pillar of this study revolves around the mandatory jurisprudential standards established by the Constitutional Court of Ecuador in Judgment No. 2032-20-EP, which redefined the boundaries of legal certainty and the minimum guarantees of contradiction and defense in corporate and educational venues. Utilizing a qualitative approach with a dogmatic-hermeneutical design, the alignment of internal regulations governing student and faculty discipline was analyzed against the supreme mandates of the 2008 Constitution. The findings reveal the persistence of punitive practices flawed by the unlawful delegation of rule-making powers, a lack of organic distinction between the investigating body and the deciding authority, and a deficient comprehension of the presumption of innocence. The study concludes that the contemporary university pedagogical model must abandon the remnants of statutory authoritarianism to establish a genuinely adversarial procedure aligned with the constitutional bloc.