Marisol Peña Torres (born 20 January 1960) is a Chilean jurist and educator. She was a minister of the

Constitutional Court of Chile The Constitutional Court of Chile (''Tribunal Constitucional de Chile'' in Spanish) is Chile's constitutional court, constitutional tribunal. It is not part of the judicial branch and is functionally independent of the National Congress of Chile, ...

(TC) from 2006 to 2018, serving as its president from 2013 to 2014. She is a professor at the Faculty of Law and current secretary general of the

Pontifical Catholic University of Chile The Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (UC Chile; ) is a traditional private university based in Santiago, Chile. It is one of the thirteen Catholic universities existing in Chilean university system and one of the two pontifical univ ...

(PUC).

Early life and education

Marisol Peña was born in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

on 20 January 1960. She studied law at

Rafael Landívar University Rafael Landívar University ''(Universidad Rafael Landívar)'' is a private Catholic coeducational higher education institution run by the Society of Jesus in Vista Hermosa III Guatemala. It was founded by the Jesuits in 1961. The main campus is ...

in Guatemala, and at the PUC. She graduated in 1981 with maximum distinction, and received the Monsignor Carlos Casanueva and Luis Gutiérrez Allende awards for her academic performance and participation in activities at the PUC Faculty of Law. She earned her law degree the following year. She completed a master's degree in international studies at the

University of Chile The University of Chile () is a public university, public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843.

in 2002.

Academic and professional career

Peña has taught at the PUC since 1982, where she occupies the chairs of

political law Political law (or political activity law) is an established legal practice area encompassing the intersection of politics and law. Political law comprises election law, voting rights law, campaign finance law, laws governing lobbying and lobbyists, ...

public international law International law, also known as public international law and the law of nations, is the set of Rule of law, rules, norms, Customary law, legal customs and standards that State (polity), states and other actors feel an obligation to, and generall ...

, and

constitutional law Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as the basic rights of citizens and, in ...

. She took over the latter in 1991 after the murder of professor and senator

Jaime Guzmán Jaime Jorge Guzmán Errázuriz (June 28, 1946 – April 1, 1991) was a Chilean constitutional law professor, politician, and founding member of the conservative Independent Democratic Union party. In the 1960s, he strongly opposed the Universit ...

. She has received the school's awards for "teaching excellence" and "recognition of teaching excellence". Together with professor , she organized the master's and postgraduate programs in constitutional law at the PUC Faculty of Law, and was its first academic secretary. In 2005, she was elected a member of the faculty's council and, at the beginning of 2006, director of the public law department. In June 2018, she became secretary general of the PUC. She has also taught constitutional law at the University of Chile, University of Santiago, , and University of the Americas, as well as at the and the . In 2004, Peña received a grant from the to participate in the Course on European Community Law Applied to Latin America. Since 2004, she has been a member of the board of directors of the Chilean Constitutional Law Association. In 2018, she was appointed a full member of the . She has published articles related to matters of political, constitutional, and international law in several national legal journals. She has also practiced as a lawyer for the Municipalities Division of the Office of the Comptroller General, and legal advisor to the Ministries of the General Secretariat of Government and the General Secretariat of the Presidency.

Minister of the Constitutional Court

In January 2006, Peña was appointed as a of the

(TC) and, that May, TC minister, by the

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

, replacing Urbano Marín. In June 2009, the plenary session of the Supreme Court ratified her as TC minister for a new nine-year term. During her time on the court, she stood out for her conservative positions, including votes in favor of the unconstitutionality of the distribution of

Levonorgestrel Levonorgestrel is a hormonal medication used in a number of birth control methods. It is combined with an estrogen to make combination birth control pills. As an emergency birth control, sold under the brand names Plan B One-Step and Julie, ...

(the "morning after pill") in the public health system, and the

Inter-American Development Bank The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB or IADB) is an international development finance institution headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States of America. It serves as one of the leading sources of development financing for the countri ...

loan to

Transantiago Red Metropolitana de Movilidad (English: ''Metropolitan Mobility Network''; named Transantiago until March 2019) is a public transport system that serves Santiago, the capital of Chile. It is considered the most ambitious transport reform underta ...

. On 22 August 2013, she was elected president of the TC, a position she assumed on 26 August, becoming the first woman to serve as such. She resigned from the presidency of the court on 29 August 2014, and was replaced by . She resigned as TC minister on 8 June 2018.

References

External links

Marisol Peña
at the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pena, Marisol 1960 births People from Santiago, Chile Rafael Landívar University alumni Pontifical Catholic University of Chile alumni University of Chile alumni 21st-century Chilean lawyers Chilean scholars of constitutional law Living people Academic staff of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile Academic staff of the University of Santiago, Chile 21st-century Chilean women lawyers