Profile

Law Degree (Summa Cum Laude) (1962) and Doctor of Laws (Summa Cum Laud)e (1964), Central University of Venezuela.

Since 1963 has been Professor on the Central University of Venezuela. He was the Director of the Public Law Institute (1978-1989 and Head of the Administrative Law Chair and Head of the Public Law Department at the same University. He has been Professor in post graduate courses in the Law Faculties at the University of Cambridge (LLM), UK; the University of Paris II; the University of Rosario and the University Externado of Colombia in Bogotá. In 2006 and 2007, he has been Adjunct Professor of Law at the Columbia Law School, University of Columbia, New York.

In 1981 he was awarded with the National Sciences Prize of Venezuela, for his achievements in the law and institutional studies

He is Vice-President of the International Academy of Comparative Law (The Hague); Member of the Board of Directors of the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights; and Member of the Venezuelan National Academy of Political and Social Sciences, where he served as President in 1997-1999 .

In Venezuela, he has been Senator for the Federal District; Head of the Presidential Commission on Administrative Reform and Minister for Decentralization; and was elected Member of the National Constituent Assembly in 1999.

Since 1980, is the Director of the Public Law Journal (Revista de Derecho Público) of Venezuela and has extensively published books and articles on constitutional and administrative Law.

Since 1974 he has been Partner of the Law Firm Baumeister & Brewer, Caracas.