The paper analyzes the use given to the category of unconstitutional state of affairs (ECI) in the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court of Colombia and the Peruvian Constitutional Court, and compares the similarities and differences in the application of the figure in both cases. Complementarily, it analyzes the ECI in the light of the doctrine on strategic litigation, defined as the judicial claim in the form of individual or collective actions that seek the structural transformation of State institutions in pursuit of respect for democratic rights and values enshrined in the Constitutions.