Motivación en las sentencias emitidas por los jueces de primer nivel en Ecuador

Abstract

Abstract:This paper examines the quality of the reasoning in the judgment issued on January 4, 2020, in case 13336-2019-00089 (Civil Judicial Unit of the Sucre Canton, Manabí Province) for breach of a purchase agreement. The general objective is to Analyze the characteristics and quality of the reasoning in judgments issued by first-level judges in Ecuador, based on the constitutional and legal principles and jurisprudence that guarantee due process and the right to a reasoned judicial decision. In a non-experimental, analytical-descriptive study, two evaluation matrices (scale 1-5) were applied, based on the standards of sufficiency, rectitude, and optimality of the Constitutional Court's reasoning analyses. The results yielded 4.86/5 for motivational sufficiency and 4.83/5 for motivational correctness (average of 4.85/5), which allows us to describe them as motivational excellence. The excessive workload is critical, and the 100% digital case file (SATJE) and the predominantly documentary and objective burden of proof, ideal for civil contract law, explain the excellence. It is concluded that the quality of the motivation at first instance is not a structural problem, but rather depends largely on the judge's specialization, digitalization, and the complexity of the issue.