THE CONCEPTION OF INDIGENOUS JUSTICE IN ECUADOR

The consideration of indigenous justice in Ecuador implies finding out if there is a common concept of justice, or if, irremediably, it would be necessary to start from the observation that indigenous justice and ordinary justice imply different approaches, especially due to the fact that the latter is structured according to the legal system that governs the whole country, that is, from a positive legal basis, distant from the ancestral bases that support the indigenous culture. In this research work, the question of the application of indigenous justice in Ecuador was analyzed. But from now on it is necessary to point out that the fact that such justice is set out in the framework of the Constitution and the laws implies the problem of the search for its conciliation or the recognition of incompatibilities with the ordinary justice. This problem must be permanently approached from the conception of justice and the cultural background it implies, as mentioned above. It is therefore possible to speak of the coexistence and confrontation of two ways of organizing the administration of justice. In the case of indigenous justice, it is necessary to keep in mind that its conception responds to a cultural development that gives it its strength, its potency, but at the same time reveals its weakness, its vulnerability before the hegemony of the positive law coming from the State.