Independence, celerity and specialty are the inspiring principles for the creation of the Administrative Courts in the different systems at a global level.

When addressing the principle of independence, it is necessary to start from the convenience that it represents within the structure of a legal system to separate the roles of the Administration, so that it can develop the tax and customs functions that are proper to it, and in turn, a third entity is responsible for hearing the claims that arise between the Administration and the administered.

The convenience begins with impartiality, since the controversies will be analyzed by independent third parties, which form a collegiate body, devoid of motivations, which will comprehensively evaluate the specific situation and will rule in strict accordance with the law, safeguarding the constitutional, legal and procedural guarantees for the parties.

In this regard, it should be noted that although the Administrative Courts are mostly located in the structure of the Public Treasury, they do not lose their independence, since they are endowed with specific functions and procedures, separate from the Tax and Customs Administration.

Under this structure, we find the Administrative Court in Panama, the Tax Court in Peru, the National Tax Court in Argentina and the Tax Appeals Authority in Bolivia, among others.

Moving on to the principle of celerity, the importance of the Administrative Courts also emerges with radiant clarity, since being an intermediate entity between the Tax and Customs Administration and the judicial apparatus, it effectively decongests the process.

Additionally, the celerity can be seen in the terms of evaluation and decision provided by law for the Court to act, which are clearly shorter than the terms established in the judicial processes.

Thus, the benefits derived from the celerity of the Courts allow the configuration of a true justice, which not only requires decisions based on the search for the material truth, but also involves timeliness as a central element, to the extent that a decision, even if based on rigorous analysis, loses relevance if it is issued several years after the occurrence of the controversial situation.

In this connection, it is also necessary that the terms established to rule on the appeals of the decisions issued by the Court preserve the speed of the process previously carried out, since otherwise, an incongruence would be generated between the speed of the administrative process and the delay of the process in the judicial venue.

Achieving the procedural celerity proposed between both instances, today more than ever is feasible, if we consider the increasing use in the socio-legal environment of new technologies derived from the fourth industrial revolution, which allow through highly reliable platforms to manage the processes, and even incorporate blockchain technology for the management of the traceability of information.

Finally, in view of the principle of specialty, the Courts are indeed of importance, to the extent that tax and customs issues in general have complex regulatory frameworks, both in the domestic and supranational environment, which require professionals highly knowledgeable of their content, to ensure decisions based on technical-legal criteria.

The purpose of the specialty of justice, in the case of Administrative Courts, is achieved precisely by having these collegiate bodies with Magistrates of the highest academic and professional qualities, which guarantee evaluations and decisions with a high degree of rigor and reliability.

The technical depth, which is characteristic of the decisions issued by the Courts, stands as a precedent of the greatest relevance for the Administration and the administered parties in future cases that share factual and legal similarities.

Likewise, it allows the Magistrates to find in the decisions of the Administrative Courts, technical and legal foundations of great thickness, from which they can build the evaluation and final decision that closes the controversy, in the appeals filed before the organs of the judicial venue.

The figure of the Administrative Courts has been recurrently recommended by organizations such as the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations - CIAT, which even has on its web page for public consultation the database of Administrative Tax Courts, among other sources of consultation, which raise the benefits of this figure within the countries.

In the case of Colombia, the current moment is propitious to advance in the implementation of a Tax and Customs Court, if we consider, among others, the recently approved initiatives to reform the Code of Administrative Procedure and Administrative Litigation (CAPAL).

The proposal has been in the air for several years, on which different considerations have been exposed, so through these lines we join again to the proposal to create the Tax and Customs Court in Colombia. considerandos, por lo que mediante estas líneas nos sumamos nuevamente a la propuesta de crear el Tribunal Tributario y Aduanero en Colombia.

Best regards.

Erwin