Ignacio Burgoa

Ignacio Burgoa Orihuela (March 13, 1918 – November 6, 2005) was a Mexican lawyer, professor and writer.

He was a federal judge in Mexico City, and a respected lawyer in Mexico.

He studied Law and obtained his PhD from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where he taught for more than 58 years. He was author of the most renowned law books in his field in Mexico since 1943, when at age 25 he published his first book El Juicio de Amparo ("The Amparo Trial") that was the first systematic treaty on the subject and has become the most read and referred book by specialists in the constitutional trial of amparo in Mexico. In 1944 he published his second book Las Garantías Individuales ("Constitutional Guarantees"), and in 1973 he published Derecho Constitucional Mexicano ("Mexican Constitutional Law"). These three books that have had tenths of editions, cover all of the constitutional topics in Mexico and are consulted and referred by all professors, attorneys and judges in Mexico, where he has been the most known attorney for decades.

From 1951 to 1954 he was a Federal Judge in Administrative Matters in Mexico City, a position in which he obtained a well earned reputation of just and wise. After he resigned from that charge, he dedicated his activity to litigating and teaching. In any case that was important or in the public eye, Ignacio Burgoa would be involved in one way or another, as an attorney, or simply assisting the persons involved with his very respected opinion. At any time that the media needed a legal opinion on public affairs they would consult him, as well as many authorities did. He had only the Constitution and the Law as his guiding lines and usually settled any differences as of which should be the interpretation of either one, even between authorities. He wrote articles in diverse Law Reviews and for several newspapers and magazines that dealt with public matters, without any concern of the adversaries he had, which included very powerful public servants, that in many cases had to accept that he was right.

He was a cultured man who spoke five languages: Latin, German, French, English and his native Spanish.

He is one of the most important Mexican attorneys, law professors and law writers of the twentieth century. A Magistrate of the Supreme Court once referred to him as "The Conscience of Mexico".

Works

• "El Juicio de Amparo" ("The Amparo Trial"), First Edition 1943, 41st Edition 2005
• "Las Garantias Individuales" ("Constitutional Guarantees"), First Edition 1944, 38th Edition 2005
• "Derecho Constitucional Mexicano" ("Mexican Constitutional Law"), First Edition 1973, 17th Edition 2005
• "Diccionario de Derecho Constitucional, Garantías y Amparo", (Dictionary of Constitucional Law, Guarantees and Amparo), First Edition 1984
• "Antología de su Pensamiento", (Anthology of his Thinking), First Edition 1987.
• "Memorias. Epítome Autobiográfico 1918–1996", (Memoires), First Edition 1996
• "El Jurista y el Simulador del Derecho, (The Jurist and the Simulator of Law), First Edition 1988
• "El Proceso de Cristo, ( ), First Edition 2000