19 May 2020
Through Executive Decree No. 18 dated May 16, 2020, published in the Official Gazette No. 99 Volume 427 of the same date, the President of the Republic Decreed a STATE OF NATIONAL EMERGENCY OF THE PANDEMIC BY COVID-19. Incorporating in said decree the text of Legislative Decree No. 593 dated March 14, 2020 and its corresponding reforms; valid for 30 days from its publication in the Official Gazette.
Regarding the aforementioned Executive Decree No. 18, the unconstitutionality process reference 63-2020 known by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice on May 18, 2020 was initiated, which after the corresponding analysis of the filed lawsuit resolved:
a) Admit the lawsuit filed in order for the Chamber to declare the unconstitutionality of the aforementioned Decree No. 18 due to formal defects, with respect to the fact that it extended Legislative Decree No. 593, which corresponds to the Legislative Assembly, the function that was exercised by the President of the Republic without justification; and in relation to article 142 of the Constitution, on the principle of parallelism of the forms, being that Executive Decree No. 18, reformed the validity of Legislative Decree No. 593, without following the same procedure verified for the creation of the aforementioned legislative decree.
b) The immediate and provisional suspension of the effects of Executive Decree No. 18 is decreed as a precautionary measure, so that while the unconstitutionality process lasts, the authorities of the Executive Branch may not exercise any of the powers that said regulation establishes; Likewise, all the effects of any act or norm that is a consequence of Executive Decree No. 18 are suspended.
c) The Legislative Assembly and the Executive Branch are required, based on the Principle of Collaboration between Bodies in the exercise of their functions, to make a mutual effort to carry out the actions aimed at issuing in the shortest possible time a law of emergency that updates the conditions in which Salvadoran society finds itself to date in the fight against COVID-19.
4. Through Executive Decree No. 25 dated May 16, 2020, published in the Official Gazette No. 99 Volume 427 of the same date, the Executive Body in the Health Branch Decreed Reforms to article 4 in the Health Branch No. 24 dated May 9, published in the Official Gazette No. 93 Volume 427 of the same date, in relation to the days of circulation remaining until the end of its validity.