SCOPE AND LIMITS OF THE PRINCIPLE OF PROPORTIONALITY

This paper discusses the scope and limits the principle of proportionality in comparative law, from an abstract-metaphysic perspective and with an inductive methodology. Because their extensive practical application has not always been very successful, this research seeks to define what is the original meaning the principle and what their limits are. Three kinds of limits, in that order are studied: 1. preconditions for applying the principle (called a priori limits), without which it would be unreasonable to apply; 2. limits in the operation of the principle, that could be internal limitsattributable to some malfunction of the same principle, or external limitsproduced by strange things, like an unreasonableness judge; and, 3. limits that operate a posterioriof the correct application, that appears when the principle does not produce all the expected effects.