explicit law and this would be liable to judicial action.”35 45. Several of the dismissed regular members of the Constitutional Court lodged constitutional motions that were denied under the terms of the December 2, 2004 ruling.36 Mr. Aguinaga Aillón did not lodge a constitutional motion.37 VII MERITS 46. The Court will examine the scope of the State’s international responsibility in the instant case for the dismissal of Carlos Julio Aguinaga Aillón as a regular member of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal of Ecuador under National Congress Resolution 25-160 (supra paras. 40 and 41). The Court takes note that the State recognized its international responsibility for violating the right to judicial guarantees and the right to judicial protection enshrined in Articles 8 and 25 of the American Convention, read in conjunction with Articles 1(1) and 2 thereof, in injury of Mr. Aguinaga Aillón. The Court will nevertheless address the arguments on violation of these rights, for the reasons discussed above (supra para. 22). The Court will also examine whether the State is responsible for violating Mr. Aguinaga Aillón’s guarantee of judicial independence, freedom from ex post facto laws, right to participate in government, and right to work, protected under Articles 8(1), 9, 23(1)(c) and 26 of the American Convention, for all of which the State has not acknowledged international responsibility. VII-1 RIGHT TO JUDICIAL GUARANTEES, RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN GOVERNMENT, RIGHT TO WORK, AND RIGHT TO JUDICIAL PROTECTION, READ IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE OBLIGATION TO RESPECT RIGHTS AND THE OBLIGATION TO ADOPT DOMESTIC LEGAL EFFECTS A. Arguments of the parties and observations of the Commission A.1. Arguments on judicial independence, judicial guarantees, freedom from ex post facto laws, and right to participate in government 47. Before giving its arguments of law, the Commission pointed out that, regardless of the organizational placement of the TSE in the government’s institutional structure, it was an authority that exercised materially judicial duties. This meant that Mr. Aguinaga Aillón performed judicial duties in the field of elections and therefore was subject to reinforced guarantees of judicial irremovability, according to which judges can be dismissed only upon completion of their term of office or for causes attributed to their behavior through a process that respects the guarantees of due process. The Commission noted, in this case, that Mr. Aguinaga Aillón had been dismissed from his position as a member of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal per a decision by the legislature explicitly intended to correct an appointment that was allegedly contrary to the legal system. It explained that “the punitive nature of this act of state and the resulting decision on applicable guarantees did not arise, as in other cases, from a formal process,” 35 Cf. Resolution of the Constitutional Court, December 2, 2004, published in the Official Gazette No. 477 (evidence file, folios 1809). 36 Cf. Case of the Constitutional Court (Camba Campos et al.) v. Ecuador, supra, para. 102. 37 Cf. Statement in public hearing by Mr. Aguinaga Aillón, September 8, 2022, during the 151st session. 15