it since 1910, to an independent Constitutional Court. The new body hears challenges to the constitutionality of laws, legislative decrees, laws approving international treaties, and referendum or assembly constituency summons and hears appeals of lower judicial decisions related to the tutelage action of constitutional rights. The tutelage action was instituted as a quick and effective mechanism that allows citizens to assert their fundamental rights as stated in Article 8 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. The extradition of Colombian citizens was banned until the article was repealed in 1996. Presidential reelection was banned completely, with an immediate re-election already forbidden in the Constitution of 1886. However, the rule was repealed in 2004 by using procedures that were declared valid by the Constitutional Court on October 19, 2005. In 2015, the Congress approved the repeal of a 2004 constitutional amendment that eliminated the one-term limit for presidents. Title I: Fundamental principles In Article 1, Colombia is defined as a "social state under the rule of law", or estado social de derecho, organized as a "decentralized unitary republic, with autonomy of its territorial units." It cites other fundamental principles defining the Colombian State - democratic; participatory; pluralistic; based on the respect of human dignity, on the work and solidarity of the individuals who belong to it, and the prevalence of the general interest. The Estado social de derecho The definition of Colombia as a "social state under the rule of law", or estado social de derecho in Spanish, is one of the most important legal and philosophical changes associated with the 1991 constitution. The concept combines two common doctrines in continental European legal thinking - that of the Rechtsstaat (state of law or rule of law, known as estado de Derecho in Spanish), borrowed from German jurisprudence; and that of the "social state" (estado social), similar to the related concept of the Welfare state. The Colombian Constitution of 1991 was inspired by the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, which in its article 20 proclaims Germany to be a "democratic and social federal state" (demokratischer und sozialer Bundesstaat) and the Spanish Constitution of 1978 which established Spain as a "social and democratic State, subject to the rule of law" (Estado social y democrático de Derecho). The Rechtsstaat or estado de derecho refers to a State in which the exercise of political power is constrained by the law,