Dr Jan Boesten is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Politics and International Relations and member of CCW’s ConPeace team.. He earned a PhD at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver with a dissertation on the Colombian Constitutional Court and its decision to curtail constitutional reform. His argument is that the Colombian Constitutional Court must be understood as a consequence of deliberative principles rather than strategic action. Jan’s interest is situated at the intersection between political theory – legal theory and theories of social trust – and comparative politics. Before, he worked on the effects of violence and the privatization of security on political institutions – both from an empirical and theoretical point of view. His work has appeared in Colombian journals such as Revista Colombia Internacional and Precedente: Revista Jurídica, as well as LARR and LASA Forum.