Chapter 6
Government and Law in Costa Rica
There are 3 levels of government in Costa Rica, the national government, the provincial
government (which has become almost non existent with the elimination of the
provincial governors some years back), and the municipal, or cantonal
government.
The municipal governments do most of the mundane local
tasks, such as garbage collection, property tax registry and collection,
issuing of business licenses, etc.
Most people don’t realize it, but cantons vary quite a bit
in how they treat businesses. Some have
governments that are somewhat hostile to gringos. Supposedly Alajuela
is one of those. Others have a more
friendly business atmosphere, like Escazu, Santa
Ana, and some are downright inviting because they are
in a rural or depressed area. Puriscal comes to mind here.
Many of the multinational corporations here elect to locate
in a Free Trade Zone, which means they are not under the jurisdiction of the
local canton, which can sometimes be a real blessing.
The national government as 4 branches, the Executive, headed
by the President with 2 vice presidents, the legislature, which is a one house
body, the judicial, and the Supreme Elections Tribunal, which is its own branch
and runs the country on election day, monitors and organizes elections, issues
Costa Rican citizenships and cedulas, registers
marriages, etc. This branch runs the
Civil Registry.
Presidents and deputies in the legislature can only serve on
consecutive term. These term limits mean
that there are no “career legislators,” because after 4 years they have to go
back to work in the real world. Maybe
other countries should try this idea.
The Executive Branch has many ministries, but the one most
commonly run into by tourists is the ICT, which is
the tourism institute. They are
responsible for monitoring hotels and other businesses that serve tourists, as
well as performing other functions.
Of course, most expats have lots
of experience with the Immigration department.
The new administration has made great efforts to streamline this agency’s
operations, and it seems to be succeeding, which was a huge
task considering the mess left by the previous administration.
The courts operate according to the Napoleonic Code, which
works somewhat differently from that of the US
and other English speaking countries. One
big difference is that there are no juries for criminal or any other kind of
trial, but each trial is presided over by a 3 judge panel called a
Tribunal. The judges here the case,
examine the documents submitted, and issue their ruling after due
deliberation. There is a greater
reliance on document submission rather than oral testimony in court cases
here.
Another quirk of this system is that a suspect is arrested
FIRST, and then either released on bail, having to sign in every 15 days, or is
put into preventative detention. After
the arrest, THEN the investigation begins in earnest, which is the opposite way
from how things are done in the US
or UK. This system can be very bad for the
defendant, as detention can drag on for YEARS before the case is ever brought
to trial.
Both civil and criminal cases take YEARS to get to their
court dates, and the clogged legal system here seems to be getting slower
instead of faster.
The Judicial Branch oversees the prosecutor’s office
(fiscal, in Spanish) and its investigative arm, the OIJ,
which is similar in concept to the US FBI.
The police agency run by the Executive Branch is th Ministerio Publico. Each canton
also has their local police. So you have
3 different main types of police operating in this country, each with its defined
duties.
The Supreme Court of Costa Rica is called the Sala IV, which is the constitutional court. This court acts as a check and balance on
other parts of government, to make sure they follow the constitution.
We could go on and on cataloguing various government
agencies or bureaus, but this gives you an idea of some of the main branches
and functions.
One final word, you need to be really careful here not to get
involved in a lawsuit. If someone sues
you they cn ask the court to take away your passport,
which means you can be stuck in this country until your case goes to court,
which could be as long as 7 years from the start of the process.
Another problem I will caution you on is if you married but
get a divorce and have kids from that marriage, the X wife can appeal to the
court, and they will send the police out to take your passport and bar you from
leaving the country unless you put up ridiculous amount of alimony and child
support payments to the court in advance.
One other word of caution for business owners, is that you
need to make sure you are using a good lawyer to set up your business affairs,
as there are many different things you need to do with different levels of
government, and you want to make sure you have everything under control so that
your buisness is operating within the law.
If you want a recommendation to good lawyers or other
professionals, please email us at our customer service address which is at the
bottom of the left hand column.
