Santiago N. Ortegon Giral

Santiago Ortegón Giral joined the Penn Carey Law SJD program in early 2020, and spent his first semester of doctoral studies at Georgetown University Law Center during the fall of 2019. Mr. Ortegón Giral graduated in 2013 from Universidad de los Andes in Colombia with and LLB and a Minor in History and Economics, and earned his LLM degree from UC Berkeley School of Law in 2018. He was a LLM thesis track student and wrote a dissertation titled ‘Honor the Bargain: To Comply with the Peace Agreement, a Major Step Towards a Lasting Peace in Colombia’ under the guidance of Professor John Yoo. During his time at Berkeley, he served as a delegate of the Law School before UC Berkeley’s Graduate Assembly, and as an Associate Editor for the Berkeley Journal of International Law. He also worked with the Worker’s Rights Disability Law Clinic and Berkeley Immigration Group. In Colombia, he was and associate at two Public Law firms, a public officer at an Environmental Bureau, a teaching assistant at Universidad de los Andes, and an intern with the World Bank, conducting research for solving the lengthy delays in Colombia’s judicial system.

Dissertation

Santiago studies peace agreements and, in particular, how they address the root causes of internal armed conflicts, and what role do dispute resolution frameworks play within the agreements for securing their implementation. Santiago examines how peace agreements have changed societies in which they have been implemented, and how they have guaranteed or not peace or improved security, political participation, or income inequality. They expected impact of his work is to determine whether peace agreements are indeed an effective tool for achieving peace and tackling the causes of conflicts, and to identify the necessary components for dispute resolution frameworks to successfully resolve disputes between the parties of a peace agreement.

Dissertation Committee

Professor Beth A. Simmons (supervisor)