BOOK: Mario CAJAS, The History of the Supreme Court of Colombia, 1886-1991 [La Historia de la Corte Suprema deJusticia de Colombia, 1886-1991]. Bogotá: University of the Andes/Icesi University, 2015. ISBN 9789587740929 and 9789587740943, $25

(image source: Libreria Uniandes)

Mario Cajas-Sarria (Icesi University, Cali) published The History of the Supreme Court of Colombia, 1886-1991.

Abstract and table of contents:

The book tells for the first time a history of the Supreme Court of Colombia and places the tribunal in the broader context of Colombian politics.
This history evolves in eight periods and chapters: (1) From the Court of the Regeneration to Constitutional Court: Between the Defense of Legality to Constitutional Supremacy, 1886-1910; (2) The Supreme Court in its Inaugural Stage as a Constitutional Court, 1910-1915; (3) The Court Between Conservative and Liberal Hegemony: Between Politics and Law, 1915-1945; (4) The Supreme Court, 1945-1952: Toward the Crisis of the Political Regime; (5) The Court under the Military Rule, from 1953 to 1958; (6) The Transition to Civilian Rule: The Court at the beginning of the National Front; (7) The Consolidation and Crisis of the National Front and the Struggle for Power of Judicial Review, 1968 to 1980; and (8)The Court in the Midst of War: Rise and Decline of Judicial Review of the Supreme Court, 1981-1991.
The narrative is constructed through the mutual interdependence between legal doctrine and political contexts and environments, so that it serves to outline the development of the Court within the Colombian political realm. The book analyzes the constitutional decisions of the Court, and recognizing a partial autonomy of legal doctrine, discusses his relationship with political events.
In each period different interventions of the court reveal their political complex, the relationships with other political actors in the political regime, and also the strategic behavior of the Court and its justices. Thus, it captures the changes, ruptures and continuity in the institutional trajectory of the Supreme Court, the constitutional justice and even the building of the Colombian judiciary. In this history, the Court appears as a "special" political actor, who made decisions although constrained by legal doctrines and the interpretive community. In doing so, this narrative seeks to contribute to the knowledge of a field that, in general, has arguably been unexplored in Latin America and especially in Colombia.

Capítulo Primero: Cómo construir una narrativa de la Corte Suprema de Justicia de Colombia
Capítulo Segundo De juez de la Regeneración a juez constitucional: entre la defensa de la legalidad y la supremacía constitucional, 1886-1910.
Capítulo Tercero: La Corte Suprema de Justicia en su etapa inaugural como juez constitucional, 1910-1915;.
Capítulo Cuarto: La Corte entre las hegemonías conservadora y liberal: entre la política y el .derecho, 1915-1945.
Capítulo Quinto: La Corte Suprema de justicia, 1945-1952: hacia la crisis del régimen político.
Capítulo Sexto: La Corte bajo el régimen militar, 1953-1958.
Capítulo Séptimo: La transición al régimen civil: La Corte en los inicios del Frente Nacional.
Capítulo  Octavo: La consolidación y crisis del Frente Nacional y la lucha por el poder del control constitucional,-1968-1980.
Capítulo Noveno: La Corte en medio de la guerra: ascenso y declive del control constitucional de la Corte Suprema de Justicia, 1981-1991.  

 The book can be acquired on amazon or at the University of the Andes.