This site uses cookies. Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site, while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used. For more information, please see the ProZ.com privacy policy.
Cookie settings
Informe previo audiencia pública nacional de rendición de cuentas
Arqueo por diferencia

Glossary entry

Spanish term or phrase:

ponencia

English translation:

draft opinion

Added to glossary by Charles Davis
Aug 3, 2018 00:30
5 yrs ago
52 viewers *
Spanish term

ponencia

Spanish to English Social Sciences Law (general) Corte Constitucional, Colombia
I think there must be a specific term OTHER than "report" in reference to this. It appears to be a written document that a SINGLE higher court judge presents to the entire court for its evaluation. Would this qualify, then, as an "opinion"? It's presented BEFORE the court makes a decision. I'm so lost here!

El magistrado Luis Guillermo Guerrero les presentó a sus compañeros de la Corte Constitucional la ponencia sobre la ley que creó la Justicia Especial para la Paz, documento que será debatido y sobre el que la Sala Plena debe tomar una decisión en los próximos días.

La Corte Constitucional aprobó la ponencia que tumba el proyecto que reducía del 12% al 4% los aportes de salud de los pensionados. La ponencia había sido presentada por la Magistrada Cristina Pardo, exsecretaria jurídica de la Presidencia.

La Corte Constitucional de Colombia rechazó hoy una ponencia contraria al matrimonio de parejas del mismo sexo, lo que abre la puerta a la unión legal de homosexuales, informaron hoy a Efefuentes judiciales.
Proposed translations (English)
4 +6 draft opinion
4 paper
4 motion / submission / proposal
4 -1 communication
Change log

Aug 17, 2018 04:28: Charles Davis Created KOG entry

Discussion

Charles Davis Aug 6, 2018:
@Robert Great. Thanks very much for all this!
Robert Carter Aug 6, 2018:
Sorry, I didn't have time to continue the discussion last night, Charles. Yes, that's really all I was getting at.
I later looked for the term in Alcaraz, Hughes and Campos' Dictionary of Legal Terms and they have it as, among other things "delivery of the opinion of a bench of judges" and as "leading opinion", and then go on to describe the "ponente" as "judge responsible for drafting the leading opinion for the consideration of his/her fellow judges", with "ponente de la mayoría" as "responsible for drafting the opinion approved by the majority".

However, in Becerra (which relates specifically to Mexico), he in fact refers to the ponencia as "preliminary draft the court's opinion; draft opinion on a case tried before a collegiate court which is written by one of the judges or justice (called magistrado ponente, ministro ponente or simply ponente) for consideration by the full court at the time a decision is to be reached).

So, in all, your translation fits perfectly here. Perhaps we can say that it is a draft opinion at first but then becomes simply one of the "opinions" (and usually refers to the majority one) after being incorporated into the judgment.
Charles Davis Aug 6, 2018:
@Robert I believe it's true, however, that concurring and dissenting opinions do constitute "jurisprudencia"; at least, I can recall reading/translating judgments in which some element of the concurring/dissenting opinion of Justice X in Sentencia TC 000 was quoted and used as part of an argument. So I accept the distinction you're making between the ponencia and the judgment.
Charles Davis Aug 6, 2018:
Well, I suppose strictly speaking that the sentencia includes both the approved ponencia and any concurring or dissenting opinions, but the approved ponencia, written by the ponente (or usually, as you say, by his/her clerk) — the final majority opinion — is the court's judgment, because in so far as the other opinions published with it differ from it they do not take precedence over it.
Charles Davis Aug 6, 2018:
@Robert OK, I think we're more or less in agreement. It's a question of terminology. In Spain, and I presume in Colombia, when the "ponencia" has been voted on and approved in plenary session it becomes the "sentencia". In any collegiate court the "sentencia" often (perhaps usually) doesn't represent the unanimous view of the court, and dissents are quite common, but it is nevertheless the final judgment of the court. It started life as a "ponencia", but once the case is concluded it's not called that any more; it's cited as Sentencia TC 000/0000, and the ponente is the justice who wrote it.
Robert Carter Aug 6, 2018:
@Charles I don't mean to say that it's the final opinion (although it can be). I'm just saying that while it obviously goes through drafting stages, the "ponencia", even after being voted on, is still a "ponencia" (which is why citations for supreme court decisions usually mention a "ponente", i.e., the person who drafted the opinion that the majority agreed with). Obviously it's not final until voted on, so yes, you're right, here they'e referring to a draft opinion, but when voted on it doesn't become the judgment of the court, it becomes the majority opinion unless there are no other opinions (dissenting or concurring), in which case I suppose they're good to go with just that one as the judgment, if you see what I mean.
Charles Davis Aug 6, 2018:
@Robert Well, in the SCOTUS of course the word "ponencia" doesn't arise. But take Spain. The Catalan Estatut case, which was before the Spanish TC for four years, ended up having seven ponencias (that word was used), written by different justices. Numbers 1-6 were voted on and rejected by the Pleno. The "ponencia" referred to in this text on the Colombian TC is a draft, without question. It hasn't yet been debated or voted on, and if the vote goes against it another will have to be written. The ponencia, once approved by vote in plenary session, becomes the judgment of the court and ceases to be a mere draft. But a ponencia is not per se a final majority opinion.
Robert Carter Aug 6, 2018:
@Charles Yes, but it works the same way in the SCOTUS. The opinion writing judge (usually their clerk in fact) writes the opinion (a draft), then presents it to the other judges, who can then suggest changes or, if these differences can't be resolved, they can write dissenting or concurring opinions. The "ponencia" still ends up being the final "opinion" of the majority, not a draft.
Manuel Cedeño Berrueta Aug 4, 2018:
Sorry, Sandro, I hadn’t seen you had sent a complete definition of the term
Manuel Cedeño Berrueta Aug 4, 2018:
Definitions:
Ponencia. Funciones del ponente. Informe o proyecto de resolución que presenta a la discusión de sus colegas.
Ponente. En los tribunales colegiados del orden judicial, el magistrado que, por turno, sigue de cerca el trámite de una causa, dirige las pruebas y redacta un proyecto de resolución que somete a la aprobación o modificación de sus compañeros de tribunal o sala.
Ossorio, Manuel: Diccionario de Ciencias Jurídicas, Políticas y Sociales, 30ª edición, Editorial Heliasta, Buenos Aires, 2004

Proposed translations

+6
3 hrs
Selected

draft opinion

I think this is quite closely analogous to the procedure of the US Supreme Court, for example. After oral argument has been heard there is a conference, and responsibility for drafting a written opinion expressing the majority view is assigned to one of the justices. The draft opinion is circulated and may be amended before it is finalised as the majority opinion. Other justices may draft concurring or dissenting opinions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procedures_of_the_Supreme_Cour...

This procedure can perfectly well apply to a constitutional court pronouncing on the constitutionality of a law, as in the case of Colombia:

“The Colombian Constitution authorizes the Constitutional Court to "decide unconstitutionality suits filed by citizens against laws" or executive decrees. […] A justice of the Constitutional Court serves as rapporteur. […] Following this evidentiary phase, the rapporteur prepares a draft opinion, upon which her colleagues must deliberate for at least five days, except in cases of national emergency. […] The Constitutional Court decides by majority and dissenters may file a separate opinion. If a majority rejects the rapporteur's position, the Chief Justice may call upon another justice to draft an opinion for the tribunal. The final decision appears, along with any concurrences or dissents, in the Constitutional Court's Gazette.”
https://opencommons.uconn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=12... (pp. 218-219, pp. 36-37 of file)


Peer comment(s):
agree JohnMcDove : You may be totally right (as usual!), but it seems to me that the Spanish is a bit more "general," while your options seems more specific (and then establishing "case law", setting a precedent.) /../ Ok, then. :-)
11 hrs
Hi John. The "ponencia" in a constitutional or other higher court is a specific thing: it's a "borrador de sentencia" written by one of the judges and debated by the others. See e.g. this on the Estatut case in the TC in 2010: https://goo.gl/zF1sYt
agree Sandro Tomasi : Would this fit?: Magistrado ponente http://www.enciclopedia-juridica.biz14.com/d/magistrado-pone... // Good enough for me, then.
11 hrs
Yes, it's relevant: the "ponente" writes the "ponencia" // Thanks, Sandro. In Colombia's TC the "ponente" drafts a "proyecto de fallo"; that's clearly the "ponencia". See here esp. Arts. 31-34: http://www.corteconstitucional.gov.co/lacorte/reglamento.php
agree AllegroTrans : The only answer which understands the legal procedure; compare function of juge-rapporteur in some of the French courts and the judge advocate-general at the ECJ
13 hrs
Thanks, Chris. The rapporteur is indeed a close analogy. The Spanish term in earlier centuries was relator, and it seems to have survived in Latin America.
agree Manuel Cedeño Berrueta : See definitions above
1 day 5 hrs
Many thanks, Manuel :-) ¡Saludos!
agree Robert Carter : Hi Charles. Strictly speaking, while there may be a preliminary draft opinion that gets refined, the "ponencia" is not a "draft opinion", it's the actual [majority] opinion (there may be others, e.g. a "concurring opinion" or "dissenting" opinion).
2 days 22 hrs
Hi Robert. Thanks! But what you say is not true of Colombia, since as the ST says, "les presentó a sus compañeros [...] la ponencia, documento que será debatido y sobre el que la Sala Plena debe tomar una decisión". Same in Spain btw (see my ref.)
agree Richard Vranch
6 days
Many thanks, Richard :-)
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Selected automatically based on peer agreement."
-1
31 mins

communication

Note from asker:
So your suggestion for the first example would be "Judge Luis Guillermo Guerrero presented his fellow Constitutional Court judges with a communication on the law..." ? Have you ever seen "communication" used in this context before?
Peer comment(s):
disagree AllegroTrans : No a judge (cf. rapporteur, with which you are perhaps familiar) doesn't make a "communication" - wrong term completely
16 hrs
Something went wrong...
1 hr

paper

"paper" in much the same sense as "academic paper" offered for pier review.
Note from asker:
Robin, can you cite any website where a higher court judge presents a "paper" for the review of his/her fellow judges in the evaluation of a specific case? Thanks in advance!
Peer comment(s):
neutral AllegroTrans : Whilst it no doubt is a paper in the broad sense, this isn't the term used when a judge (rapporteur/reporting judge) issues an opinion to the rest of the Court (which then makes a formal decision)
15 hrs
Something went wrong...
3 hrs

motion / submission / proposal

A formal proposal put to a legislature or committee.

‘opposition parties tabled a no-confidence motion’
More example sentencesSynonyms
proposal, proposition, submission, recommendation, suggestion

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/motion

http://dle.rae.es/?id=TdkHMGl

Saludos cordiales.
Peer comment(s):
agree Terence Jeal
5 hrs
Thank you very much, Terence. :-)
neutral Charles Davis : Hi John. These terms apply to statements presented to the court by parties or their lawyers, not to documents emanating from judges themselves. // The ponencia is written by one of the judges of a collegiate constitutional court, without a doubt.
6 hrs
Thank you very much, Charles. :-) The question here is if these really emanate from the judges themselves, or are these submitted to the individual magistrate who then presents it to the court... ? (I got the impression that that is the case.)
disagree AllegroTrans : Submissions are made by parties, motions are part of legal procedure, again made by parties (applications in Br En) and proposal is too loose a term in the context
13 hrs
Thank you, Allegro. :-)
Something went wrong...
Close search
Term search
  • All of ProZ.com
  • Term search
  • Jobs
  • Forums
  • Multiple search