Las potestades públicas de la Administración del Estado en la tutela de los intereses públicos: a propósito de la sentencia 634/2007 del Tribunal Constitucional

Abstract

This paper examines the implications of the general interests and administrative authorities in the Chilean Administrative Law, based in sentence 634/2006 of the Constitutional Court. Using this sentence as a background, it is possible to explain the role that general or public interests play in the Chilean Legal System, the tutelage of them by the state institutions, particularly, by the administrative agencies and the prerogatives that they have in order to enforce the regulations that establish and protect those interests. In this context, what is being studied is the way in which these legal categories interact in the constitutional and legal rulings concerning access to administrative documentation. The new article 8° of the National Constitution and article 13 of the Constitutional Organic Statute with General Foundations of the State Administration, are kept as a reference. Then the theoretical convictions are campared in this matter with what has been determined by the Constitutional Court in Sentence 634/2006, accounting for the imprecisions and mistakes incurred in the ruling and the consequences it has for the systematic comprehension of Administrative Law.