Art. 2001 Grounds in general

Sometimes a court judgment can be thrown out completely, even after it becomes final. This is called an "action of nullity," and it means asking the court to cancel a judgment because something was seriously wrong with it.

There are two basic types of problems that can make a judgment invalid. The first type involves flaws in form, meaning the judgment wasn't handled the right way procedurally. The second type involves flaws in substance, meaning something about the actual decision itself was fundamentally unfair or improper.

The specific reasons that count as valid grounds for nullity are spelled out in the articles that follow this one. So this rule mainly sets up the idea that final judgments aren't always truly final. If there's a serious enough problem, a person can still challenge it and ask the court to wipe it out.