The reform of the internal regulations and debates of the legislative council of the Trujillo state

Abstract

This article comprises a technical, hermeneutic and argumentative analysis of the Partial Reform of the Internal Regulations and Debates of the Legislative Council of the State of Trujillo entered into force in 2017. For which a qualitative methodology of hermeneutic-argumentative type was used, combining the documentary analysis of the reformed text and normative criteria coming from the legislative technique, the theory of legal interpretation and the principles of normative argumentation. The study has been able to detect important advances in some areas, such as the incorporation of sub-commissions, the strengthening of internal control powers given the appearance of new attributions for the Internal Audit and, likewise, the promotion of citizen participation in the framework of legislative processes. However, important weaknesses were also detected, such as the lack of precise technical definitions, the excessive concentration of content in single articles, and the lack of a solid explanatory memorandum to give normative sense to the reforms introduced. From the hermeneutic perspective, it is concluded that the reform contains a good will to adapt to constitutional principles, but without overcoming deficits of systematicity and precision; in terms of legislative technique, the text requires improvements in clarity, organization and structure; and from the argumentative point of view, it is necessary to enrich the internal and external justification of the provisions. Therefore, considerations aimed at strengthening the legitimacy, applicability and durability of this Regulation are proposed.