Jorge Tapia Valdés

He studied law at the Faculty of Legal and Social Sciences of the University of Chile,^[5] where he was a classmate of personalities such as Andrés Zaldívar, Ricardo Lagos and José Rodríguez Elizondo, among others.^[4] He obtained a Master of Laws from Yale University, United States, and a doctorate from Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands.^[6][7]

He worked for the Senate of the Republic of Chile for 18 years, becoming secretary of the Committee on Constitution, Legislation and Justice of the Upper House.^[6] He also taught at the University of Chile, Arturo Prat University, University of Tarapacá,^[4] University La República, the University of Zulia in Venezuela, Ohio State University in the United States, and Erasmus University Rotterdam.^[6]

In 1998, based in Iquique, together with a group of academics, he founded the Institute of International Studies (INTE) at Arturo Prat University, where he later served as Director of the Law School in the mid-2000s.^[8] In 2012 he was named honorary member of the Chilean Society of Parliamentary Law and Legislative Theory.^[9]

Under the government of Salvador Allende, he was Minister of Justice and Minister of Public Education between 1972 and 1973. In the latter portfolio, he promoted the controversial project of the Unified National School, strongly opposed by the Catholic Church and opposition parties.

After the 1973 coup, he was arrested and confined to Dawson Island.^[4] He went into exile and settled in the Netherlands, where he was director of the Institute for the New Chile. Upon the return of democracy, he was appointed Chilean ambassador to that country during the presidency of Patricio Aylwin, between 1990 and 1994. Later, he also served as ambassador to Israel, between 1994 and 1997.

During the presidency of Ricardo Lagos, he was appointed Intendant of the Tarapacá Region, where he mishandled his post by accepting the erroneous information given by the police regarding the victims of the Alto Hospicio Serial Killer.^[4] He remained in the position between 11 March and 28 December 2000.^[10]

In his final years he resided in Madrid, Spain.^[4] He died there in late June 2020.^[2]

• La técnica legislativa (Legislative technique), 1960^[11]
• Hermenéutica constitucional: la interpretación de la constitución en Sudamérica (Constitutional hermeneutics: interpretation of the constitution in South America), 1973.^[12]
• Sobre la factibilidad y el fracaso de la vía chilena al socialismo, en Chile: lecciones de una experiencia (On the feasibility and failure of the Chilean road to socialism: lessons from an experience), 1977.^[13]
• El terrorismo de Estado: la doctrina de la seguridad nacional en el Cono Sur (State terrorism: the doctrine of national security in the Southern Cone), 1980.^[14]
• Estrategocracia: el gobierno de los generales (Strategocracy: the government of the generals), 1986.^[15]

• El Congreso Pleno (The Full Congress), Part I, Revista de Derecho Público, 1965, no. 3^[16]
• El Congreso Pleno (The Full Congress), Part II, Revista de Derecho Público, 1965, no. 4^[16]
• Leyes de Bases y Nuevas Categorías (Basic Laws and New Categories), Revista de Derecho Público, 1970, no. 11^[16]
• Competencia y Organización de una autoridad supranacional (Competence and organization of a supranational authority), Revista de Derecho Privado, 1966, no. 3^[16]
• Globalización, descentralización y paradiplomacia: la actividad internacional de las regiones (Globalization, decentralization and paradiplomacy: the international activity of regions), Revista de Derecho, PUCV, 2002, no. XXIII^[16]
• El juicio político y sus problemas (Impeachment and its problems), Revista de Derecho, 1964, no. 128^[16]
• ¿Estado mínimo o mínima ética? (Minimal state or minimal ethics?), Revista de Derecho, 1997, no. 202^[16]
• Descentralización y paradiplomacia (Decentralization and paradiplomacy), Revista de Derecho, 2002, nos. 211–212^[16]
• Efectos de los tratados sobre derechos humanos en la jerarquía del orden jurídico... (Effects of human rights treaties on the legal order), Ius Et Praxis, 2003, vol. 9, no. 1^[16]
• Poder constituyente irregular... (Irregular constituent power), University of Talca, 2008.^[17]