On Friday, August 11, and following the recent appointment of Brady Harman and Greg Zoeller, the Center for Constitutional Democracy added two new members to its Advisory Board: Professor Richard Albert (University of Texas at Austin) and Justice Manuel Cepeda (former President of the Constitutional Court of Colombia).
Albert is Professor of World Constitutions and Director of Constitutional Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, founding director of the International Forum on the Future of Constitutionalism, and Co-President of the International Society of Public Law. Currently a member of the Constitutional Reform Committee advising the Government of Jamaica on writing and enacting a new constitution for the country, he has published over 25 books on constitutional democracy, including Constitutional Amendments: Making, Breaking, and Changing Constitutions (Oxford University Press). He has held visiting faculty appointments around the world, including at Universitas Airlangga (Indonesia), Universidad de Especialidades Espiritu Santo (Ecuador), Universidad Externado (Colombia), FGV (Brazil), Maharashtra National Law University Mumbai (India), University of Ottawa (Canada), Reichman University (Israel), University of Toronto (Canada), and Yale University. Formerly a law clerk to the Chief Justice of Canada, Richard Albert holds law and political science degrees from Yale, Oxford, and Harvard.
Justice Manuel Cepeda Espinosa is President Emeritus of the International Association of Constitutional Law and member of the governing board of Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá. From 2013 to 2022 he was one of the agents of Colombia before the International Court of Justice in two delimitation cases initiated by Nicaragua against Colombia. From July 2015 to August 2016, he was part of the negotiating team on transitional justice during the Colombian peace process. He was President of the Constitutional Court of Colombia from 2005 to 2006 and a Justice from 2001 to 2009. He was Dean of the Law School of Universidad de los Andes (1996-2000); Ambassador of Colombia to UNESCO (1993-1995) and to the Helvetic Confederation (1995-1996). He participated in the drafting of the 1991 Colombian Constitution as Presidential Advisor for the Constituent Assembly and Constitutional Drafting for President of the Republic César Gaviria Trujillo (1990-1991); and Presidential Advisor for Legal Affairs for President of the Republic Virgilio Barco Vargas (1987-1990). Justice Cepeda is also the author of several constitutional law books. He graduated magna cum laude from Universidad de los Andes in 1986 and received his LL.M. from Harvard Law School in 1987. In 1993, Justice Cepeda received the Order of Boyacá, in the highest degree of the Great Cross, from the President of the Republic of Colombia.
The CCD Directors would like to extend a warm welcome to Professor Albert and Justice Cepeda, and look forward to their guidance and support during the three years of their term on the Advisory Board.