Brief Bio

My key research interests are in the areas of subnational autonomy, utilities regulation and social rights in Colombia. Currently, I am conducting my doctoral research at Oxford University under the supervision of Professor Christopher Hood (Fellow of All Souls College and former director of the ESRC Public Services Programme) and Dr Eduardo Posada-Carbó (Research Fellow at St Antony’s College). My doctoral studies focus on the recentralisation processes in Colombia. In 2004, I obtained the third highest score in Colombia (3/8577) in the State undergraduate test of knowledge of Law (ECAES – Pruebas Saber Pro). From 2008 to 2011, I was Director of the Center for Studies in International Law “Francisco Suárez, S.J” and Editor of the International Law Journal “International Law Revista Colombiana de Derecho Internacional”(ISSN-1692-8156) at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (private Jesuit university located in Bogotá, Colombia). In 2010, I received the Honorable Mention of the ‘Concurso Nacional José Ignacio De Márquez sobre Derecho Economico’, a national Law and Economics paper contest. My work has been cited by some Colombian authorities such as the Constitutional Court, Defensoría del Pueblo (Ombudsman), Contraloría General de la República (National Fiscal Control Office) and Superintendencia de Servicios Públicos Domiciliarios (Domestic Utility Services Superintendency). I am member of the American Political Science Association -APSA-(Public Administration), the Latin American Studies Association -LASA- (Decentralization and Sub-national Governance), as well as of the European Consortium for Political Research -ECPR-. Also, I am a founder member of the Colombian Society of International Law, as well as a founder member of the Center for Studies in Public Utilities, Infrastructure and Telecommunications and the Centre for Studies in Regional Finances and Development at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana.

Representative Publications

Books

“La Garantía de los Derechos Sociales” (Social Rights Guarantees) (ISBN 978-958-716-310-0), Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and Ibàñez Press, 2009. Reprinted in 2013. With Alfredo Bateman, Juliana Vengoechea and Juanita López. Foreword by Nilson Pinilla Pinilla, Judge of the Colombian Constitutional Court.

Papers

Regulatory agencies and courts in the South: the overlaps in the Colombian water regulation, Journal of Politics in Latin America (peer-reviewed journal – ISSN 1868-4890), 5 (2) 2013, pp. 105-132.

Political institutions and judicial role: an approach in context, the case of the Colombian Constitutional Court, Vniversitas (peer-reviewed journal – ISSN 0041-9060), No.119.2009, pp. 55-92 (with D. Landau).

La protección de la propiedad de la tierra en la jurisprudencia de la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos y su aplicación al caso de las comunidades campesinas en Colombia (The protection of land in the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and its application to Colombian rural communities), International Law. Revista Colombiana de Derecho Internacional (peer-reviewed journal -ISSN 1692-8156), No.14.2009, pp.71-105 (with G. Maldonado).

El Régimen Tarifario de los Servicios Públicos Domiciliarios y la Cláusula de Progresividad de los DESC en Colombia (Regulation of public utility rates and the obligation of progressive realization of economic, social, and cultural rights in Colombia), Revista de la Maestría en Derecho Económico (peer-reviewed journal – ISSN 1692-3103), No.5. 2009, pp.201-240.

“Servicios Públicos Domiciliarios”: una reinterpretación desde el Bloque de Constitucionalidad (Household Public Utilities: a reinterpretation from the perspective of the “Constitutional Block”), Vniversitas (peer-reviewed journal – ISSN 0041-9060), No.117.2008, pp.171-196 (with J. Schonberger).

La Obligación de Progresividad de los Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales: el caso de los Servicios Públicos en Colombia (The Obligation of progressive realization of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: the case of Colombian public utilities), International Law. Revista Colombiana de Derecho Internacional (peer-reviewed journal – ISSN 1692-8156), No.12.2008, pp.217-252 (with L. García).

La problemática actual de los paraísos fiscales (Current problems around Tax Havens Issue), International Law. Revista Colombiana de Derecho Internacional (peer-reviewed journal – ISSN 1692-8156), No.10.2007, pp.311-338 (with J. Schonberger).

Asistencia Estatal a los Desplazados y Reparaciones en el Sistema Interamericano de Derechos Humanos (Public assistance and reparations to forcefully displaced persons in the Inter-American Human Rights System), International Law. Revista Colombiana de Derecho Internacional (peer-reviewed journal – ISSN 1692-8156), No.8.2006, pp. 161-194 (with Juana Acosta).

Courses taught at CTLS

• Transnational Environmental Law (Fall 2014)