EL VALOR JURÍDICO DEL SILENCIO.

Abstract

Generally speaking, in the law, positive legal situations, acts and actions are those situations, acts and actions that have legal effects; but in certain circumstances omission and silence can have legal effects as well, sometimes against and sometimes in favour of the omitting or silent person. The legal effects of silence appear in all branches of the law. This paper studies the legal value of silence in civil, procedural, administrative and constitutional law. A considerable portion of the paper deals with constitutional silence, which is manifested primarily when the legislative branch fails to issue a law that is its constitutional mandate to issue (unconstitutionality by omission; for example, failure to regulate stable de facto unions, Spanish Constitution, article 72). In this respect, a wide-ranging study is made of constitutional silence in various countries of Latin America and Europe, and an explanation is given of how this problem is addressed in the Nicaraguan system of constitutional justice. The paper concludes with a reflection on the future of the institution in question.