This research work studies the trend towards the constitutionalization of administrative law and his identification features to study the scope of this process on a particular right. Specifically, this research studies the effect of onstitutionalization through jurisprudence on the water law. After studying 71 judgments of the Constitutional Court and 22 of the State Council, it determines 5 traits or parameters that make it possible to identify the scope of the constitutionalization on a specific right: (i) The approach of the constitutional judge: According to the constitutional precedent in the studied area of law, does the substantial right prevail or is there greater discretion of the State, the Legislator, the Executive, and individuals? (ii) Categorization of law: What is the nature of the law? If, according to the constitutional judge, this is a fundamental right: Is it a fundamental autonomous or related right? (iii) The judicial defense mechanism: Are constitutional actions applicable? Is there a special judicial defense mechanism to request the protection? (iv) The definition of the content of the law: Are there consolidated constitutional sub-rules? Do the sub-rules have an impact on the legal system? (v) And the types of measures: Do decisions generally have immediate effects or tend to be mixed, with immediate, medium and long-term orders with an impact on public policies? These identification parameters were applied within the framework of the right to potable water and the public aqueduct service. This research explains the progress of the trend in the studied area, the fields still to be developed, and, finally, proposes solutions for certain identified problems. Likewise, two ideas are left raised as a result of the global development of this study, the first one, related to the “constitutional culture” and, the second one, the importance of strengthening a harmonic collaboration work between the branches of state´s government.
