The principle of good faith and money paid in excess by the State Administration: An analysis of the judgments of the Council of State

Abstract

In the following article will be presented the criteria that have been developed in Colombian Council of State Jurisprudence around the non-refoulement of money that was paid in excess by the Administration State, also it describe how the Good faith general principle of law operates; for that aimit was made a study about sentences that this High Court has pronounced in the last ten
years, it means that this includes the period between 2007 and 2017, term in which have many judicial decisions that solves this type of claims raised by the State entities, specifically to be initiated annulment and re-establishment of the right claim, which it has been call by some authors as a detrimental action. 

The effect on the State patrimony is not take into account in judicial decisions, since there is an enrichment and correlative impoverishment of the public Treasury, being cause for the Administration mistakes to recognize and give extra money to individuals. In any case, the application of the presumption of good faith cannot be accepted when the profit was obtained through anilegal action, however, to order to return the money gived to individuals by the Contentious Court, prevails the subjective aspect with which the particular acted to receive those economic benefits.