Juan Carlos Esguerra Portocarrero

Practice Areas

Dr. Esguerra received his law degree from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, a specialist degree in socioeconomic sciences at the same university, and a Masters in Law (LL.M) from Cornell University in the United States.

Aside from his professional practice, to which he has been dedicated since 1977 as a consultant, in litigation, and national and international arbitrations in the areas of administrative law, constitutional law, and civil and business law, Mr. Esguerra was Secretary General and Vice-Minister of Communications from 1974 to 1976, an elected Delegate to the National Constitutional Assembly in 1991, Minister of Defense from 1995 to 1997, Ambassador of Colombia to the United States from 1997 to 1998, and Minister of Justice from 2011 to 2012.

From 1991 to 1995 he was Dean of the School of Law at Universidad Javeriana, and for more than thirty years he has been a professor of administrative law and constitutional law at that university. On several opportunities he has also served as a professor of administrative law, constitutional law, and economic law at the Externado de Colombia, Andes, and the Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Señora del Rosario universities. Since 1992, he has also been a member of the Cornell Law School Advisory Council.

In addition, he has authored numerous legal articles in specialized magazines on the subject of public law, and is the author of the book “La Protección Constitucional del Ciudadano” (Constitutional Remedies) (Legis, Bogotá 2004).

Since 2001 he has been a voting member of the Colombian Academy of Jurisprudence (Academia Colombiana de Jurisprudencia), of which he had been an associate member since 1996. On two opportunities (2004 and 2006) he has been an ad hoc Justice for the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

Since 1986 he has been a member of the arbitrators list of the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce and since 1988 an arbitrator of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris (ICC).