Title VIII, Chapter I, of the Venezuelan Constitution of 1999 is named “Guarantee of this Constitution.” As stated in the Preliminary Recitals of said Fundamental Text, said Chapter sets forth the main dispositions of constitutional justice as a jurisdictional mechanism for guaranteeing the supremacy and normative force principles of the Constitution, which are also stated in article 7 of the Constitution of 1999.

Constitutional justice is exercised in Venezuela through different mechanisms that complement one another. On the one hand, the Constitution assigns to every judge, in the scope of his or her corresponding competencies, the obligation to “assure the integrity of the Constitution” (article 334 of the Constitution). This obligation must be complied with by all judges of the Republic in different ways: (i) in the course of the actions and processes that they must hear according to their competency; (ii) by the hearing of amparo actions for the protection of fundamental rights and guarantees; and (iii) through the diffuse control of the constitutionality, under which “in case of incompatibility between this Constitution and a statute or any other legal norm, the constitutional dispositions will be applicable,” leaving without effect, for this specific case, the application of the norm contrary to the Constitution, even if the same is made ex officio.

On the other hand, Venezuelan constitutional justice, which has been qualified as a mixed or integral system, also includes the concentrated control of the constitutionality of the acts and omissions of the Public Power with rank of law.