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AN UNEASY ARGUMENT AGAINST THE BULLFIGHTS BAN (AND OTHER CULTURAL EXPRESSIONS INVOLVING ANIMALS) IN COLOMBIA

Santiago García Jaramillo

23 Oct 2025

On September 4, the Constitutional Court of Colombia, in ruling C-374 of 2025 (Ruling C-374), unanimously upheld Law 2385 of 2024, which instituted a national ban on bullfights and all activities related to that cultural tradition. In the same ruling, the Court extended the ban to other activities involving cockfights, coleo, and corralejas, despite the fact that petitioners did not include a claim of this sort in their lawsuit. While this decision has been applauded by animal-rights defenders, I aim to demonstrate that the ruling does not offer solid argumentation. In fact, it introduces internal tensions into the existing case law of constitutional law and is problematic in terms of moral and political philosophy.

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Professor of Constitutional Law at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Bogotá-Colombia); LL.B Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Bogotá); LL.M, Yale Law School; JSD Candidate, Cornell Law School.