Personal Information:
Margarita Escudero León is a Senior Partner at Tinoco, Travieso, Planchart & Núñez, where she joined in 1990. She leads the firm's Public and Regulatory Law Department, specializing in Administrative and Constitutional Law, with extensive experience in regulated strategic sectors such as telecommunications and pharmaceuticals.
She has represented companies, associations, and organizations in administrative, contentious-administrative, and constitutional proceedings of all kinds, providing counsel on public procurement, expropriations, free competition, price control, and other complex regulatory regimes. For 18 consecutive years, she has been ranked Band 1 by Chambers Latin America in the area of Public Law.
Education:
• Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, Law Degree, Cum Laude distinction, ranked first in her class, 1991.
• Harvard University, Master of Laws (LL.M.), 1993 (Fundayacucho Scholarship – Excellence Recognition).
• Universidad Central de Venezuela, Doctorate in Law, Honorable Mention, 2004.
Academic activities:
• Full Member of the Academy of Political and Social Sciences, Seat No. 2.
• Professor of Introduction to Law, Master’s in Tax Management, Universidad Metropolitana (2000-2005).
• Extension Course Professor, Cendeco, Universidad Metropolitana (since 2000).
• Professor of Constitutional Law, Universidad José María Vargas (2000-2001).
• Professor of Administrative Law (appointed through competitive examination), Universidad Central de Venezuela (since 2001).
• Professor of Constitutional Law, Universidad Católica Andrés Bello (since 2001).
• Professor of “Public Power and its Distribution” in the Advanced Constitutional Law Program, Universidad Católica Andrés Bello (2009).
• Professor of “International Treaties, Human Rights, and the Constitution” in the Doctorate in Law, Universidad Católica Andrés Bello (2018).
• Professor of “Checks and Balances in the Constitution” in the Constitutional Law Postgraduate Program, Universidad Central de Venezuela (2025).
• Thesis advisor and jury for undergraduate, doctoral theses, and faculty promotion works at Universidad Central de Venezuela and Universidad Católica Andrés Bello.
Judicial activities:
• First Alternate Judge (1995-1999) and Acting Judge (1996-1999) of the Second Superior Court for Civil and Administrative Litigation matters of the Judicial District of the Capital Region.
• Associate Judge of the First Administrative Litigation Court (1999-2000).
Activities:
• Member of the Editorial Board of the Public Law Journal (since 2004).
• Venezuela’s Representative on the Steering Committee of the Women in the Profession (WIP) Program of the Vance Center (2016-2018).
• Member of the Technical Council of the Public Law Institute at Universidad Central de Venezuela (since 2023).
• Member of the Board of Directors of the Venezuelan Association of Administrative Law (AVEDA) (since 2024).
Publications:
• "The Procedural Requirement of the Prior Act in Light of Jurisprudence", in Public Law Journal No. 57-58, 1994.
• "The Rationality of the Institution of Judicial Review", in Táchira Law Journal No. 8, 1996.
• " State Liability arising from its Administrative, Legislative, and Judicial Activity", in Tribute Book to the Dr. José Santiago Núñez Aristimuño Conferences, 2000.
• "Judicial Declaration of Unconstitutionality Due to Legislative Omission", in Foundations and Principles of the Venezuelan Constitutional System, 2001.
• "Regulatory Regime for Radio and Television in Venezuela", in The New Public Service, VI Allan Brewer-Carías International Conference on Administrative Law, 2002.
• "The Mechanism for Judgment Review by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice" and "The Jurisprudential Treatment of Collective and Diffuse Interests as a Form of Procedural Legitimacy", in Supreme Court of Justice Jurisprudential Developments, 2002.
• "Reflections on the Enforcement of Judgments Condemning the Venezuelan State to Pay Monetary Compensation", in Tribute Book to Allan Brewer-Carías, 2003.
• "Reflections on the Revocatory Power in Venezuela", in Tribute Book to Gustavo Planchart Manrique, 2004.
• "Reflections on Threats to Freedom of Expression in Venezuela", in Legal Essays Celebrating 90 Years of Tinoco, Travieso, Planchart & Núñez, 2004.
• Judicial Control of Constitutionality over the Legislative and Executive Branches of Public Power (Honorable Mention, Political and Social Sciences Academy Award), 2005.
• "Critical Commentary on the Law of Social Responsibility in Radio and Television" (Co-author), in Venezuela, Situation of the Right to Freedom of Expression and Information, 2005, and in Studies on the Law of Social Responsibility in Radio and Television, 2006.
• "Constitutional Justice and the Protection of Human Rights", in Public Law at the 100 Issues of the Public Law Journal 1980-2005, 2006.
• "Main Modifications to the President's Powers in the Proposed Constitutional Reform", in Public Law Journal 112, 2008.
• "The Binding Effect of Constitutional Jurisprudence in Venezuela", in A Century of History and Law: 100 Years of Tinoco, Travieso, Planchart & Núñez, 2014.
• "Decree Laws and Regulations as a Source of Administrative Legality", in Tribute Book to the Fundamental Institutions of Venezuelan Administrative Law and Jurisprudence by Professor Allan R. Brewer-Carías on the Fiftieth Anniversary of its Publication 1964-2014, 2015.
• "It is the People Who Hold Sovereignty and Decide Their Destiny", in The State: A Form of Human Association, Research Work, El Universal Newspaper, Caracas, June 21, 2015.
• "The Rule of Law in the 1999 Constitution", in Constitutional and Parliamentary Studies, 2016-2017 Yearbook, Universidad Católica Andrés Bello and Fermín Toro Institute of Parliamentary Studies, Caracas, 2019.
• "Brewer, the Practicing Lawyer", in Allan R. Brewer-Carías: A Multifaceted Personality. Tribute Book by the Venezuelan Association of Administrative Law on His 80th Birthday, Aveda, Caracas, 2020.
• "Toward Greater Participation of Women in the Legal Profession in Venezuela", in Business Venezuela, Caracas, August 2020.
• "The So-called Anti-Blockade Law Against the Constitution", in Bulletin of the Academy of Political and Social Sciences, July-December 2020, Academy of Political and Social Sciences, Caracas, 2020.
• "Constitutional Justice as a Non-Guarantor of Constitutional Rights: The Case of Freedom of Expression in Venezuela", in VII International Congress on Constitutional Procedural Law, Caracas, 2021.
• "Expropriation in the Framework of Foreign Investment Protection", in Property Rights and State Intervention: New and Old Problems. Annual Conference of the Venezuelan Association of Administrative Law (AVEDA), 2021, AVEDA and CIDEP, Caracas, 2021.
• "The Rule of Law Clause in Light of the 1999 Constitution", in Tribute Book to Dr. Humberto Romero Muci, Academy of Political and Social Sciences, Caracas, 2023.
• The Crisis of Economic Freedom and Private Property Rights in 21st Century Socialism, Editorial Jurídica Venezolana, 2024.
• "Constitutional Justice as a Collaborative Instrument of Authoritarian Regimes: The Case of International Human Rights Law in Venezuela", in XVI Ibero-American Congress of Constitutional Law, Mexico City, forthcoming, 2024.
• "The Current State of the Procedural Prerogatives of the State in the Framework of the Rights to Equality and Effective Judicial Protection", in Human Rights as a Limit to State Power in Its Administrative Activity, XIV Aníbal Dominici Conference, Caracas, 2024.
• "The Importance of Procedural Law as a Guarantor of Administrative Law Compliance", in The Relationship Between Administrative Law and Other Disciplines, 2024 Conference of the Venezuelan Association of Administrative Law, Caracas, 2024.
Languages:
Spanish and English.