Law 2540/2025: A Significant Expansion Of Arbitral Power

Colombia has adopted one of the most ambitious arbitration reforms in recent years. Law 2540/2025 introduces arbitration for enforcement proceedings (arbitraje para procesos ejecutivos), and, in doing so, extends arbitration beyond adjudication into an area traditionally associated with courts. The law's stated objective is to contribute to the decongestion of the judicial system, but its wider significance is doctrinal. It challenges the long-standing idea that arbitrators lack enforcement authority.

From Adjudication to Enforcement

Colombia's constitutional framework already permits private individuals to be temporarily vested with the function of administering justice as arbitrators.¹ Colombian constitutional jurisprudence has likewise recognised that enforcement proceedings are not, in principle, excluded from arbitral jurisdiction, thus leaving it to Congress to regulate them.²