Roberto Gil Zuarth

Roberto Gil Zuarth (born 10 October 1977) is a Mexican politician affiliated with the PAN. He was Undersecretary of the Interior. He also served as Deputy between 2009 and 2011 during the 61st Legislature. He contended in 2010 for the presidency of the National Action Party against Gustavo Madero Muñoz. He was Private Secretary to Mexican President Felipe Calderón. He currently serves as Senator of the LXIII Legislature of the Mexican Congress.From 1 September 2015 to 31 August 2016, he was the President of the Mexican Senate.

Early years and political career

Roberto Gil Zuarth studied law at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, and has a master's degree in constitutional law by the Charles III University of Madrid being a candidate to a PhD in law by the same university.

He resigned a year later to become general coordinator of the National Presidential Campaign of Josefina Vázquez Mota, candidate of the PAN to the Mexican Presidency in the 2012 general elections. On those same elections he won a seat as Senator of the Republic.

He is the author of several academic articles and essays on topics such as constitutional law, electoral law, and parliamentary law. He was a weekly columnist of Mexican journal Excélsior, until he became President of the Senate.

In 2013, the ITAM gave him the Professional Merit Award of the Public Sector, an award given every year to former alumni with distinguished professional careers.

Other activities

He has worked as an academic in the Universidad Anáhuac México Sur, teaching constitutional processes and political theory. Since May 2005, he was the academic coordinator of the program on electoral law of the ITAM.

Since 2005, he is member of the Mexican Network for a Democracy of Quality. He has been advisor to the Unit for the Promotion of Democracy of the Organization of American States in the regional project of better parliamentary practices (2003), advisor to the Inter-American Development Bank in the program of institutional strengthening of the Congress of the Republic of Peru, advisor of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and of the Mexican Representation in the State University of New York (SUNY).

Publications

Books

"La inhabilitación de partidos políticos". /In/ TENORIO, Manuel (coord.). Constitucionalismo mexicano. Planteamientos en la forma y estructura. Aportaciones para el estudio de las reformas estructurales. México: Editorial Porrúa-Universidad Anáhuac México Norte, 2009, pp. 99–117. "Estado social y democrático de Derecho: las implicaciones jurídicas de la fórmula". /In/ VALADÉS, Diego; CARBONELL, Miguel. El Estado constitucional contemporáneo. Culturas y sistemas jurídicos comparados, tomo I, México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2006, pp. 351–373. "Mecanismos parlamentarios para la gobernabilidad democrática". /In/ PAOLI, Francisco (coord.) Memorias del Foro Interamericano sobre Modernización Legislativa México: Cámara de Senadores, 2005. "Balance de la LVII Legislatura" (with Nelly Arocha and José María Lujambio). /In/ PAOLI, Francisco (coord.) La Cámara de Diputados en la LVII Legislatura. México: Cámara de Diputados, 2000. "Breves consideraciones sobre la Ley de Justicia Indígena del Estado de Quintana Roo". /En/ Anuario de Derecho Público. El Federalismo hoy, núm. 2, Mc. Graw Hill – ITAM, México, 1998.

Magazine articles "Institucionalización en reversa. La nueva legislatura frente a la modernización de la Cámara de Diputados". In Este País, number 123, June 2001, pp. 21–26. "Reglamento de debates: reflexiones en torno a un galimatías constitucional". /In/ Quórum Legislativo, number 83, October–December 2005, pp. 181–192. "Filemón y el Tribunal Electoral". /In/ Voz y voto, number 190, December 2008, pp. 48–50. "Entre el chantaje y la medicina". /In/ Voz y voto, number 256, June 2014.