Acceso usuarios
Nicole Espinosa Proaño, David Molina Coello
La proporcionalidad es un criterio que puede encontrarse tanto en la legislación interna de los Estados como en el Derecho Internacional Público, al igual que en su rama de inversiones. Este criterio presupone la ejecución de la medida menos gravosa por parte del Estado frente a un acto imputable al inversionista, la cual debe aplicarse de manera progresiva respecto de otras posibles medidas ajustables al acto que faculta su implementación. El problema planteado frente al caso Occidental parte de la caducidad del contrato de participación petrolera por la delegación de participación que realizó dicha compañía a un tercero. Al aplicar el concepto de proporcionalidad, el tribunal del Centro Internacional de Arreglo de Diferencias Relativas a Inversiones (en adelante, CIADI) condenó al Estado ecuatoriano pues consideró que la medida de caducidad, pese a estar contemplada en su legislación, no era proporcional. Ante esto, cabe cuestionarse si en este caso existe una contradicción del principio de proporcionalidad con el de legalidad. El problema tiene su respuesta en el Derecho Internacional Público, sobre la base de la postura que determina que la proporcionalidad no quebranta la facultad estatal de ejecutar las medidas estipuladas en su legislación, es decir, no transgrede el principio de legalidad.
The proportionality principle is a criterion that can be found within the internal legislation of the States as well as in Public International Law, and particularly in its Investment branch. This principle forces the State to apply the least harmful measure in regard to an act attributable to the investor. Whatever measure the State applies, it has to be implemented progressively taking in account other possible measures that the State is legitimized to execute for that specific case. The issue pertaining the Occidental case deals with the unilateral termination of the participation petroleum contract due to the unauthorized cessation of rights in behalf of a third party. The tribunal of the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) evaluated the presence of the proportionality principle within the sanction that the Ecuadorian State applied to Occidental. In this sense, the tribunal condemned the sanction taken by the Ecuadorian State because they claimed that the measure was not proportional; this claim was done in spite of the Ecuadorian´s legislation since it contemplates this type of sanction for unauthorized cessation of rights to a third party. With that being said, it is imperative to question oneself about a possible contradiction among the proportionality principle and the legality principle in reference to this particular case. The issue can be solved by applying Public International Law, under the premise that affirms that the proportionality principle does not infringe the faculty a State has to execute the various measures contemplated within its legislation, therefore, it does not transgress the legality principle.
