ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the legal antecedents to the adoption of a transitional justice framework within the context of Colombian peacebuilding. It focuses on Law 418 of 1997, which is considered to be the earliest attempt to introduce certain transitional justice elements into the political context of a peace negotiation between the Colombian Government and the insurgency. The chapter also focuses on Law 975 of 2005, or the Justice and Peace Law (JPL), which is depicted as a law that, for the first time, recognized the need to incorporate a proper transitional justice project in the country in order to achieve durable peace. It presents the main aspects of the Victims and Land Restitution Law (VLRL), which was a fundamental instrument for the peace agreements with the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia—Ejercito del Pueblo, and was the existing jurisprudence before the implementation of the currently applicable transitional justice framework.
