标签： Dominican Republic

On Wednesday, Dominican Republic’s Interior and Police Minister Faride Raful confirmed that the national government will honor a recent ruling from the Constitutional Court that struck down a decades-old executive decree regulating alcohol sales hours, announcing plans to partner with the National Congress to craft a replacement piece of legislation.

In a public statement shared across major social media platforms, Raful emphasized that the executive branch maintains unwavering respect for the judicial branch’s independent decision. She outlined that the government will work closely with sitting legislators while soliciting input from broader Dominican society to develop a regulatory framework that is both up-to-date and effective at achieving its core goals. Reaffirming the government’s core priorities, Raful noted that protecting public safety and fostering peaceful community coexistence will remain at the center of the new regulatory efforts.

The Constitutional Court’s ruling centers on a 2006 executive decree that set binding restrictions on when alcohol could be sold across the country. According to the court’s judgment, permanent regulatory restrictions of this nature must be enacted through formal legislation passed by the legislative branch, rather than via executive decree, making the 2001 rule unconstitutional on structural separation of powers grounds.

The court did not immediately invalidate the existing restrictions, however. Instead, it ruled that the current rules will remain in force for a 2-year transition period, giving the National Congress adequate time to deliberate and pass new permanent legislation to replace the struck-down decree. The ruling was issued in response to a constitutional challenge brought by Dominican attorney Víctor Eddy Mateo Vásquez, who questioned the legal foundation of the executive’s regulatory measure.

Under the terms of the existing 2006 decree still in effect, alcohol sales are prohibited after midnight on Sunday through Thursday, and after 2:00 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Businesses that violate these restrictions face stiff penalties, ranging from temporary suspension of operations to permanent closure of the offending establishment.

In a landmark ruling with major implications for separation of powers in the Dominican Republic, the nation’s highest constitutional court has invalidated a long-standing executive order that set permanent limits on alcohol sales hours across entertainment and hospitality businesses. The challenged measure, Decree 308-06, was issued back in 2006 by then-president Leonel Fernández, and placed permanent operating hour restrictions on venues ranging from neighborhood colmados and bars to nightclubs and casinos. The court’s ruling concluded that permanent regulations impacting economic activity and citizen rights must be enacted by legislative bodies, not imposed via unilateral executive decree, aligning with the country’s 2010 updated constitution.

The legal challenge that led to this decision was brought forward by Víctor Eddy Mateo Vásquez, who argued that the indefinite restriction violated core Dominican constitutional principles. Vásquez contended that because the National Congress – the nation’s legislative body – never approved the permanent limit, the executive branch overstepped its authority by enacting it through administrative order.

While the court explicitly recognized that the original decree was crafted with the legitimate public interest goal of safeguarding public order and community safety, it ultimately found the measure out of step with current constitutional requirements. Justices emphasized that the 2010 Constitution explicitly requires any permanent restriction that alters economic activity or touches on fundamental rights to be passed through formal congressional legislation, not executive action. The court further noted that the executive branch’s authority to issue decrees does not extend to enacting broad, indefinite regulatory restrictions. Even with its legitimate public safety purpose, the court ruled the decree failed the constitutional test of proportionality: the order had remained in force for nearly two decades with no clear expiration date and no ongoing justification for its permanent status.

Importantly, the ruling does not eliminate all executive authority to regulate alcohol sales hours. The court clarified that the executive branch retains the power to implement temporary restrictions on alcohol sales via decree during specific, time-bound events or circumstances. These include seasonal high-traffic periods such as Holy Week and Christmas, national holidays, and ongoing public security operations that require targeted short-term regulation. Only permanent, long-standing regulatory frameworks must be approved by the National Congress.

The legal proceedings exposed a split among government bodies on the issue: the Executive Branch’s Legal Counsel publicly supported overturning the decree, and called on congressional lawmakers to draft and pass a comprehensive, formal piece of legislation to regulate alcohol sales and consumption across the country. In contrast, the Dominican Attorney General’s Office defended the decree, arguing that it was constitutional and should remain in effect.

On July 24, the Dominican Republic Senate held an extraordinary legislative session to advance a key piece of economic development legislation, giving initial approval to a bill that would establish the National Council for the Development of Health Tourism, known by its Spanish acronym Condetusa. The proposed advisory body is designed to bring structured governance to the Caribbean nation’s fast-expanding health tourism sector, balancing targeted promotion with clear regulatory guardrails.

The bill was put forward by Senator Daniel Rivera of the Santiago province, a lawmaker who brings deep sectoral expertise to the proposal from his prior tenure as the country’s health minister. At its core, the legislation aims to formally position health tourism as a national development priority, while laying out a formal institutional structure to lift industry standards. Specifically, the framework would codify new requirements for quality assurance, patient safety protocols, and official certification for providers treating international patients seeking medical care in the country.

Notably, this marked Rivera’s second push to pass similar health tourism reform in less than a year. Back in April 2025, the Senate already approved a nearly identical piece of legislation on first reading, but no public documentation exists to explain whether that earlier bill failed to advance to a required second reading, was pulled by sponsors, or has been consolidated into this new proposal. The current iteration also marks a targeted shift in scope from the 2025 draft: while the original bill sought to create a broad, overarching legal framework for regulating the entire national health tourism industry, the new proposal centers its efforts exclusively on standing up Condetusa, which will take on responsibilities for cross-stakeholder coordination and policy advocacy for the sector.

With first reading complete, the bill now moves into the next stage of the Dominican legislative process, where it will face additional debate and possible amendments before it can be signed into law. If enacted, industry analysts expect the new council to help streamline growth in the health tourism sector, which has become an increasingly important contributor to the Dominican Republic’s service economy in recent years.