2000

This course aims at demonstrating the historical context and avatars that different Western legal institutions have undergone, in a way that their conformation can be understood in the light of complex cultural processes, which were formed, among other reasons, by paradigms (Jewish-Christian tradition, Anglo-Saxon tradition, etc.) and revolutions (Papal Revolution, French Revolution, Russian Revolution, etc.)

The course dwells on the contemporary debate around the following issues: (1) the definition of law understood as a community-based social practice, and (2) the designation of rules inasmuch as we realize that the work of legislators and judges are different in democratic societies. In relation to these issues, problems are discussed to determine what is just, in abstract and for concrete cases, theoretical localization and influence of highly elaborate theories in daily legal practice.

This course is based on an approach to professional ethics from a situational perspective. Thus, students can face ethical dilemmas that lawyers encounter and must deal with as persons and as professionals. To that end, students learn the main theories of moral philosophy, and their relation with Law, as well as the Colombian legislation that regulates lawyers’ conduct (Law 1123 of 2007). The course also discusses daily problems in legal practice, as well as different theoretical and practical activities that allow students to understand specific social and legal problems.

The course Obligations II is the final module in the program on Obligations, in the Cycle of basic Law studies in the School of Law. The purpose is to integrate this course with the previous course, so students have a complete vision of obligations in private law. In this subject, students will complete studies on sources of obligations with an exam on civil responsibility and will analyze their effects, as well as the ways of transmitting and annulling.

It analyzes the way all types of law are enforced. It covers General Theory of Process and Civil Procedures (lawsuit, denunciation, legal action, competence among others) as a basis for other types of legal procedures, and particular features of other special procedures. Students learn fundamental tools for procedural and practical exercise of Law during their professional career. It also introduces the issue of alternative (non-legal) conflict resolution.

The course includes the study of norms that regulate rules of evidence, their general principles, systems of evidential activity and evaluation of the test, the object, topic and content of the test, and each of the evidence procedures available in Colombian procedural legislation with the interpretation of doctrine and jurisprudence, and other norms that regulate these issues. Students learn the necessary elements to develop a case from the evidential viewpoint in professional practice.

The purpose of the course is the following: (1) Getting students acquainted with legal regulation applicable to contracts include in the course syllabus. This implies that students will have a proper command of civil legislation and commercial legislation, and will be able to identify the basic features and problems that regulation and practice cause in each contract, (2) Identifying the economic function and the different jurisprudence and doctrinal interpretations of contracts, and (3) Drafting properly any of the types of contract included in the course syllabus.

The course has the following objectives: (1) Studying the general regime of property and other in rem rights, regarding acquisition, circulation, regulation and annulment. The command of this knowledge will allow lawyers to solve legal problems related to ownership or exercise of rights over economic and cultural resources, (2) Analyzing the sources of conflict over property of economic and cultural resources, as well as principles to provide solutions to these problems, (3) Learning the main principles of Civil Law regarding in rem rights and (4) Developing basic skills in the study of titles, legal records and conflicts over property rights.

This course includes a high percentage of procedural practice in order to identify relations between Law theory and practice, strengthening thus academic quality and skills of students, because they learn elements and techniques of legal argumentation of trial lawyers, legal consultants and civil judges, through simulation of procedures and preparation of lawsuits and concepts.

The course focuses on the study of rules, doctrine and ideological debates pertaining to the following institutions: marriage, divorce, marriage partnership, common-law marriage, parentage, parental authority, special regime of childhood and adolescence, and testamentary successions. It also discusses the problem of domestic violence against women and the structure of family guardianship to be supervised, arranged and/or substituted for the nuclear family.

The course has the following objectives: (1) Analyzing the characteristics, field of action of commercial law and its relation with other areas of Law, (2) Learning and identifying the content and scope of obligations of businessmen and commercial assets, (3) Understanding and analyzing the role and importance of certain traditional and contemporary mercantile institutions and in the activity of businessmen (unfair competition, industrial property, electronic commerce and consumer protection).

This course studies Constitutional Law from a perspective that integrates constitutional theory, aspects related to the constitutional text and jurisprudence developments, especially in the Colombian Constitutional Court. This allows structuring didactic processes for the learning of principles, rules and fundamental institutions of Constitutional theory and Constitutional Law. To this end, certain core problems of constitutional law are discussed, in a way that students learn the necessary skills to deal with different issues of constitutional character. Similarly, the course encourages the integration of constitutional law with other areas of knowledge and an understanding of constitutional consequences of certain procedures, decisions or daily developments.

The purpose of this course is to teach students research elements and techniques and to integrate theoretical and practical elements (the role of constitutional justices) of legal argumentation through understanding of legal texts and their preparation or exercise (rulings and abstention of vote). Students learn legal, contextual, rhetorical skills, which allow them to identify theories and institutions that have considerably changed the role of jurisprudence in the definition of Constitutional Law, as well as the main jurisprudence guidelines in different issues.

This course studies the fundamental institutions of Administrative Law, the relations between the Colombian state and individuals, and the way Law answers four basic questions regarding the state: How is it organized?, How does it act?, How does it respond? And how does it control public administration?. It also studies the relation between Administrative Law and other branches of Law and among Administrative Law institutions.

In this course, students will learn skills and basic knowledge necessary to understand regulatory and real factors that influence the functioning of Congress and the legislative process in the implementation of public policies. The students, based on legal and political arguments, will be able to determine whether a bill or an act correctly articulates a "good" public policy.

This course offers law students general and fundamental knowledge of penal law, penal sciences, the penal code, the theory of crime and legal consequences. These issues are dwelled upon from the perspective of the legal-penal theory and the Colombian legal-penal code, allowing students to assume a critical position toward them, and to solve practical cases and problems in that regard.

The purpose of this course is familiarize students with the general structure of the new penal process (oral-adversary system) introduced with Law 906 of 2004, bearing in mind that this process constitutes the most relevant expression of the Colombian legal code in reconciling internal legislation with international treaties on human rights. Based on this knowledge, students will be able to understand different pre-procedural and procedural stages, as well as the new roles of the parties and interveners and the different modalities of early termination. This is achieved through practical simulations that will allow students develop skills in techniques of forensic practice.

The course strives to provide a general vision of the special part of the Colombian penal law, by studying the main modalities of criminal conducts that damage or jeopardize personal legal assets, which are closely related to the dignity of the human being. The main topics include: crimes against life, personal integrity, economic assets, people and assets protected by the IHL, freedom, among others. Thus, the course seeks to define –critically and systematically- the constitutional, political, social and economic arguments that justify the penalization of the different conducts described in the applicable Penal Code, pursuant to the principles in criminal policy that limit the "ius puniendi" of the state.

The objective of the course is to provide a comprehensive study of individual labor and collective labor relations, and social security. It includes studying the fundamental principles, institutions and legal regulations, mainly in Individual Labor Law, in a manner that students are able to understand them and articulate them coherently and from a coordinated perspective in the relation between Labor Law and other areas of Law and other disciplines. The course introduces fundamental concepts and institutions of Collective Labor Law and Social Security, which can be further studied in two courses in the area of concentration (Social Security and Collective Labor Law).

This is the first compulsory course in the area of international course. The course will introduce a general vision of international law. As an introductory course, it will allow students gain sufficient knowledge to participate actively in other, more specialized courses on international law and international competitions. Section 1 will be in English, including all lectures. Students must preferably participate in class in English and write their papers and exams in English, but an exception will be made for those who prefer to do it in Spanish. This section is highly recommended to those who wish to participate in the Philip Jessup international competition.

The purpose of this course is to study the current theoretical principles of contemporary Law and their cultural precepts in order to understand more clearly the dynamics of change in legal systems in our days, and the obstacles in the harmonization of law, the transformation processes in imported legal institutions and trends of convergence and divergence of legal institutions in today’s world. Through examples from public and private law, students will be able at the end of the course to understand the main difficulties that the exercise of comparative law entails, and to incorporate a socio-legal perspective in their analysis of public and private law, especially when using a comparative method.