Luis Manuel Marcano Salazar

Research Topic: Judicial Observatories and Early Warning Systems for the Protection of Judicial Independence and Democratic Legitimacy in Latin America

Country: Venezuela

Columbia Global Center: Santiago

Luis Manuel Marcano Salazar is a Venezuelan legal scholar, historian, political scientist, and former career diplomat whose research focuses on judicial independence, constitutional democracy, institutional resilience, democratic governance, and the rule of law in Latin America. He is a Columbia Global Emerging Scholar (2026–2027), where he is developing a research project on the design of Judicial Observatories and Early Warning Systems aimed at identifying institutional deterioration that threatens judicial independence and democratic legitimacy.

His doctoral scholarship has contributed to the development of the Judicial Dissolution Paradigm, a theoretical framework explaining how the progressive erosion of judicial independence undermines democratic legitimacy, weakens the rule of law, and accelerates institutional breakdown. His interdisciplinary work combines constitutional law, comparative politics, legal history, international law, judicial governance, democratic theory, and political institutions to examine the structural relationship between courts, democratic legitimacy, and institutional stability.

His current research proposes a pilot model for Chile capable of generating empirical indicators, expert-based monitoring mechanisms, and institutional risk assessments that anticipate threats to judicial independence before they evolve into systemic democratic deterioration. Designed as an evidence-based early warning system, the project seeks to establish a replicable framework that may subsequently be adapted throughout Latin America to strengthen judicial governance, constitutional democracy, and the rule of law.

Marcano Salazar has authored more than 60 books and numerous peer-reviewed publications in constitutional law, international law, judicial governance, legal philosophy, procedural law, democratic theory, human rights, legal history, and international relations. His scholarship bridges constitutional studies, international legal order, democratic governance, and comparative institutional analysis, with particular emphasis on judicial independence as a cornerstone of democratic resilience. His work has been published by leading academic publishers in Latin America and in peer-reviewed journals indexed in Scopus, ERIH PLUS, Latindex Catalog 2.0, Web of Science, and other international academic databases.

Selected Publications

Books

  • Marcano Salazar, L. M. (2026). El paradigma de disolución judicial: Cómo la pérdida de la independencia judicial socava la estabilidad democrática. Editorial El Jurista.

  • Marcano Salazar, L. M., et al. (2025). Introducción a la teoría del Derecho Procesal. Editorial Hammurabi.

  • Marcano Salazar, L. M., & Valera Guevara, E. (2026). Manual de Filosofía del Derecho. Editorial Leyer.

  • Marcano Salazar, L. M. (2024). Tratado de Derecho Internacional Público. Editorial Ibáñez.

  • Marcano Salazar, L. M. (2024). Relaciones internacionales y política global. Editorial Ibáñez.

  • Marcano Salazar, L. M. (2024). Teoría, filosofía y derecho en Núremberg. Olejnik–Alba.

  • Marcano Salazar, L. M. (2022). El principio de legalidad y los juicios de Núremberg. Editorial Hammurabi.

  • Marcano Salazar, L. M. (2019). Metodología de la investigación jurídica. Olejnik–Alba.

  • Marcano Salazar, L. M. (2018). Derechos humanos: Teorías y doctrinas. Olejnik–Alba.

Selected Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

  • Marcano Salazar, L. M. (2023). Criminal liability in the International Judges' Trial at Nuremberg (1947): Reflections on international criminal procedural law. Revista Tribuna Internacional, 12(24).

  • Marcano Salazar, L. M. (2022). Human security of displaced persons from Venezuela in Chile in the face of the regional crisis and COVID-19. Revista Latinoamericana de Derechos Humanos.

  • Marcano Salazar, L. M. (2020). La dinámica de las relaciones diplomáticas entre Venezuela y los Estados Unidos durante el gobierno del general Isaías Medina Angarita (1941–1945). Anuario Latinoamericano. Ciencias Políticas y Relaciones Internacionales.

  • Marcano Salazar, L. M. (2009). Dinámica de la Junta Revolucionaria de Gobierno en el contexto internacional (1945–1948): Defensa y promoción de la democracia. Revista de Historia de América.