Los derechos fundamentales y el principio de proporcionalidad

The paper assesses the widespread use of the test of proportionality in fundamentalrights adjudication. While constitutional and human rights courts all over the worldappear to be consistently engaged in deploying the test of proportionality in orderto assess the permissibility of a given rights limitation, this approach is under severecriticism insofar as it is considered an attack to the very idea of fundamental rights. Thepaper will discuss this criticism of the use of proportionality, and will provide a defenseof its use by courts in light of some basic features of the contemporary discourse offundamental rights.