Bogotá at 75: Palaces, Streets, and Classrooms

Abstract

Seventy-five years ago, representatives from twenty-one American republics convened in Bogotá to reorganise and consolidate the legal-political Inter-American System. The Bogotá Conference took place in Colombia’s capital from 30 March to 2 May 1948. The gathering was expected to mark a defining moment in the trajectory of hemispheric relations, including political, legal, economic, and defence aspects. Over six decades, American states had regularly assembled in International Conferences of the American States – also known as Pan-American Conferences –alternating locations across the continent. The conferences had been instrumental in crafting a rich array of regional principles, treaties, resolutions, and agencies. American leaders and diplomats had grappled with the challenges of fostering a closer continental union, navigating through periods of Latin American resistance to US interventionism and dominance. These tensions had been partially alleviated by Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor Policy and cooperation during World War II. With the war over and the United States rising as the world’s superpower, Bogotá emerged as a crossroad for the future of inter-American regionalism. This essay introduces the Journal of the History of International Law special issue: 'Bogotá at 75'.

Keywords: History of international law, Latin America, Bogotá Conference, human rights, indigeneity, economic cooperation, dispute settlement, collective security, regionalism, American international law