
Jan Boesten
I am postdoctoral research fellow in the From Conflict Actors to Architects of Peace: Promoting Human Security in Colombia and Internationally project. I earned my PhD at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver with a dissertation on the Colombian Constitutional Court and its decision to curtail constitutional reform. I make the case that the strength of the Colombian Constitutional Court must be understood as a consequence of deliberative principles rather than strategic action.
My interest is situated at the intersection between political theory – legal theory and theories of social trust – and comparative politics. Before, I worked on the effects of violence and the privatization of security on political institutions – both from an empirical and theoretical point of view. My work has appeared in Colombian journals such as Revista Colombia Internacional and Precedente: Revista Jurídica, as well as LARR and LASA Forum.
Publications
Colombia’s Critical Juncture: The Communicative Origin of the 1991 Constitution. In Precedente. Revista Jurídica. Vol. 8 (2016).
“Of strategies, ideas, and deliberation: Judges, Courts, and Constitutions in Latin America”. Latin America Research Review. Forthcoming.
“Between Democratic Security and Democratic Legality. Constitutional politics and presidential re-election in Colombia.” In Precedente. Revista Jurídica. Vol. 5 (2014).
“The Generalization of Particularized Trust. Paramilitarism and Structures of Trust in Colombia.” In Revista Colombia Internacional. No 81 (May-August, 2014).
“When Tintos Break Ice: Elite interviews in Colombia”. In Lasa Forum. 45:2 (Spring 2014).