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careers. Article 70 of the Constitution of Panama establishes the principle that no
worker may be dismissed other than for a fair cause and subject to the formalities
that the law establishes. It is not possible to dismiss a worker if she or he did not
commit an act regarded as cause for dismissal under the labour law. Furthermore,
the worker must be afforded the opportunity to refute the accusation or to defend
her or his rights, if she or he deems the dismissal to be unjustified. The Constitution
centralises the control of constitutionality on the Supreme Court, and it establishes
that it shall exercise the administrative conflicts jurisdiction in connection with all
acts performed by the authorities and agencies of the central administration, the decentralised administration, and the local administration. In like manner it establishes
several actions, such as the nullity action, a popular action that may be brought by
any person who is a resident of Panama. In the case of the full jurisdiction action,
which is the action actually brought by the offended party, the procedure is as
follows: in the first place, the party offended must exhaust the governmental
recourse. Once the governmental recourse is exhausted, the administrative conflicts
jurisdiction becomes available through the full-jurisdiction remedy or action. When,
in the exercise of a full-jurisdiction action, the complaint is filed, the complainant
must attach a copy of the item questioned, and all the evidence she or he deems
pertinent or convenient for his legal situation. Once the complaint is admitted, the
Substantiating Justice has to request the authority that performed the act being
contested a report on conduct relative to the case, before forwarding the matter to
the Office of the Attorney of the Administration. Once the report is received, the
case is referred to and held for 10 days in the Office of the Attorney of the
Administration, which defends the interests of the entity affected. Once the Office of
the Attorney of the Administration responds to the complaint, the proceeding is open
for the admission of evidence for a term of five days, during which both, the
Attorney of the Administration, and the complainant, have the right to propose such
evidence as they had not submitted together with the complaint or with the response
to the complaint. The law indicates that a term of 20 working days must be
established thereafter for production of the evidence. There is a period for any of
the parties to object to evidence submitted. Furthermore, if the Substantiating
Justice does not admit any of the evidence, this decision may be appealed before the
rest of the Supreme Court Section. Once this term expires, the parties present their
arguments within the five following days, and later the matter is submitted to the
decision of the court. Law 25 of 1990 is not a labour law; it is an administrative law
that refers to disciplinary sanctions that may be adopted against public servants.
Law 25 does not have a procedure for the application of the sanction; what it
establishes is a cause for dismissal. Since it does not regulate the procedure, it
would be necessary to look into the rest of the general administrative rules on the
subject. There must be a qualification in order to be able to apply a sanction, since
otherwise the administrative action would be arbitrary.
At the time that the
administration is attributing the commission of an illegal act subject to sanction to a
public servant, the participation of the subject in the constitution of such action must
be permitted, in order to question and contest the evidence submitted by the
administration against her or him. The guarantee of the due process implies hearing
the person being affected, and such guarantee to be heard is obtained through
remedies, which the accused party may file, and under which she or he may propose
evidence, submit arguments, and be heard. Article 2 of Law 25 ordered the
authorities of the State to do an identification in advance, to be able to declare the
appointment non subsistent. The rules of the different entities that governed this
issue had to be applied to such identification, since Law 25 did not establish a
procedure. Article 43 of the Panamanian Constitution regulates the matter of
retroactivity of a law, and it establishes that laws shall not be retroactive, save for
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