Felipe Osterling

Felipe Enrique Osterling Parodi (Lima, May 14, 1932 - Ib., August 30, 2014) was a Peruvian lawyer, writer and politician. Member and leader of the Popular Christian Party, he was the last president of the Senate from July 1991 until its dissolution in April 1992 and also a senator on 2 occasions. In addition, he was Minister of Justice during the second government of Fernando Belaúnde.

Biography

He was born on May 14, 1932. Son of Luis Felipe Estanislao Antonio Osterling García and Regina Parodi Irvine, great-grandson of the politician Aurelio García y García.

He completed his school studies at the Colegio Sagrados Corazones Recoleta and studied law at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, from which he graduated in 1955.

He completed postgraduate studies at the Law Schools of the University of Michigan and New York University.

Since 1957 he was a professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, where he taught courses on Private International Law, Contracts and Civil Law Practice and of whose Law Faculty he was dean (1970-1972). Since 1964 he taught as main professor the Law of Obligations course, which he also was in charge of at the University of Lima (1986-1989).

In 1966 he attended the Universities of Notre Dame, Harvard, Georgetown, Columbia and New York as a visiting professor.

In 1958 he married María Josefina Letts Colmenares, sister of Ricardo Letts, Roberto Letts and Doris Mary Letts Colmenares (mother of the writer-presenter Jaime Bayly).

The couple had five children: Madeleine Osterling, Felipe Osterling Letts, Andres Osterling Letts, José Antonio Osterling Letts and Rafael Osterling Letts.

He was dean of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru for the period 1969-1972.

In May 1993 he was incorporated as a full member of the Peruvian Academy of Law, of which he has been President (2006-2008). In addition, he was a corresponding academic of the National Academy of Law and Social Sciences of Buenos Aires (Argentina).

He was Dean of the Illustrious Bar Association of Lima in 1995, his predecessor being Dr. Jorge Avendaño Valdez and his successor being Dr. Vladimir Paz de la Barra.

He served as president of the board of Hoechst Peruana S.A., vice president of Cervecería San Juan, director of Corporación Backus & Johnston, chairman of the Brewers' Committee and director of the National Society of Industries.

He was principal lawyer at Estudio Osterling and vice president of Volcán Compañía Minera.

Political career

In politics he began as a member of the Popular Christian Party founded by former mayor Luis Bedoya Reyes.

Minister of Justice

On July 28, 1980, when the second government of Fernando Belaúnde Terry was installed, he appointed Osterling as Minister of Justice.

As such he had to re-found a ministry that had disappeared in the Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces.

He remained in office until his resignation on August 3, 1981, where he was replaced by Enrique Elías Laroza.

Senator

For the 1985 parliamentary elections, Osterling decided to run for the Senate of the Republic for the coalition between the PPC and the Hayista Bases Movement. He was elected, with 121,914 votes, for the parliamentary period 1985-1990.

During his work in the Senate, he was a member of the Permanent Commission of Congress and the Justice and National Defense and Internal Order Commissions.

He was re-elected in the 1990 elections by the Democratic Front (coalition made up of the Freedom Movement, Popular Action and the PPC) for the parliamentary period 1990-1995.

President of the Senate

On July 26, 1991, Osterling was elected president of the Senate for the period 1991-1992.

On April 5, 1992, his position was dissolved due to the coup d'état decreed by former president Alberto Fujimori.

During the crisis, Osterling showed his opposition to Fujimori's coup d'état and was prevented from exercising his duties and was even beaten by the police who restricted his entry to the Legislative Palace when he was under "house arrest" 34;.

After these incidents, he returned to his law firm and was named Dean of the Lima Bar Association in 1995. Osterling always urged condemnation of a coup d'état similar to that of April 5, 1992.

He recently served as president of the PPC Advisory Commission.

Death

On August 30, 2014, Felipe Osterling died at the age of 84. After his death, various politicians spoke out, including former president Alan García, first lady Nadine Heredia and then-prime minister Ana Jara Velásquez.

Works

• Challenges and achievements, In Justice, Methods of Obligation Law Teaching, Study on Dinerary Obligations in Peru (1995).
• Compendium of Civil Legislation, La mora and Pages of the old wardrobe (2005).
• Treaty on the Law of Obligations. Co-author with Mario Castillo Freyre. Lima: PUCP Editorial Fund, 1992.