Dr Felix E Torres

Dr Felix E Torres

Birmingham Law School
Assistant Professor

Contact details

Address
Birmingham Law School
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Felix E Torres joined Birmingham Law School as a Teaching Fellow in 2021, having completed his PhD studies at the University of Nottingham the same year. His research interests revolve around international and human rights law, especially in matters of economic and social rights, state responsibility and reparations in post-conflict societies. Felix’s work has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals in the UK, Europe, and South America, including the European Journal of International Law, Human Rights Law ReviewNordic Journal of International Law, and Revista de Estudios Sociales. He continues to write book contributions (2019, 2022) regarding the events that are taking place in Colombia, where he comes from, regarding the implementation of the peace agreement.  

Qualifications

  • PhD in Law (University of Nottingham)
  • MRes in Law (Universidad de los Andes, Colombia)
  • MA in Philosophy (Universidad de los Andes, Colombia)
  • BA in Philosophy (Universidad de los Andes, Colombia)
  • LLB (Universidad de los Andes, Colombia) 

Biography

During his doctoral studies, Felix participated in different international projects on human rights and related issues. He was a research assistant for the Advancing Child Rights Strategic Litigation project, which aims to promote synergies between research and practice in the area of child rights strategic litigation. Felix also did pro bono work for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, contributing to the development of the Global Disaster Risk Management Law Index. As a research associate of the University of Nottingham's Rights Lab, he worked on the 2019 'Measurement, Action, Freedom' Report on the UN Sustainable Development Goal 8.7., by the Minderoo Foundation's Walk Free initiative.

Before joining the University of Nottingham, Félix worked for six years as a qualified lawyer at the Constitutional Court of Colombia. He was responsible for monitoring the following topics related to the protection of the rights of internally displaced persons by violence: humanitarian aid, housing, security measures, protection and restitution of land, and income generation programs. He coordinated and drafted key judgments on these subjects.

Prior to serving at the Court, he worked in the capacity of consultant for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) - Opción Legal in Bogotá, carrying out research on constitutional jurisprudence and international protection standards regarding internally displaced persons.

Teaching

  • Legal Skills and Methods 
  • Legal Communication and Writing
  • Public Law 
  • Legal Theory

Postgraduate supervision

Economic and Social Rights, Reparations, Transitional Justice, Distributive Justice, Post-conflict settings


Find out more - our PhD Law  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

Research

Felix's current research focuses on the establishment of priorities regarding the guarantee of economic and social rights in post-conflict situations, including the question of the role that reparations should play in these settings. His research addresses the jurisprudence of European, Inter-American and African human rights bodies, as well as the work of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Felix complements his legal research with moral thinking and contemporary theories of distributive justice, which allowed him to develop a priority setting framework for these contexts.

Publications

Recent publications

Book

Torres, FE 2017, Ego sum… mortuus: El intrincado camino del espíritu para enfrentar la muerte: Una aproximación a G.W.F. Hegel desde el pensamiento contemporáneo acerca de la comunidad. Colección Prometeo, 1st edn, Universidad de los Andes, Bogota, Colombia .

Article

Torres , FE 2023, 'On Deserving Victims and the Undeserving Poor: Exploring the Scope of Distributive Justice in Transitional Justice Theory and Practice', Human Rights Quarterly, vol. 45, no. 2, pp. 306-334. https://doi.org/10.1353/hrq.2023.0015

Torres, FE 2022, 'The State, the assailant? Guaranteeing economic and social rights after widespread violence through the Inter-American Court of Human Rights', Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 12-34. https://doi.org/10.1177/09240519221086436

Torres, FE 2021, 'Economic and social rights, reparations and the aftermath of widespread violence: the African human rights system and beyond', Human Rights Law Review, vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 935-961. https://doi.org/10.1093/hrlr/ngab017

Torres, FE 2021, 'Reparations: To what end? Developing the state's positive duties to address socio-economic harms in post-conflict settings through the European court of human rights', European Journal of International Law, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 807-834. https://doi.org/10.1093/ejil/chab059

Torres, FE 2021, 'Revisiting the Chorzów Factory standard of reparation – its relevance in contemporary international law and practice', Nordic Journal of International Law, vol. 90, no. 2, pp. 190-227. https://doi.org/10.1163/15718107-bja10023

Torres, FE 2019, 'El desplazamiento forzado en los intersticios de la justicia transicional: Oportunidades y riesgos', Revista de Estudios Sociales , vol. 2019, no. 69, pp. 28-40. https://doi.org/10.7440/res69.2019.03

Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Torres , FE 2023, ¿De “desplazados” a “víctimas”? Una genealogía de la justicia transicional en Colombia desde la perspectiva de la Corte Constitucional. in J Acosta-Lopez & MDR Acosta Lopez (eds), Justicia transicional en Colombia: Una mirada retrospectiva. Editorial Planeta, pp. 277-351.

Torres, FE 2019, Justicia transicional en perspectiva: posibilidades, retos y nuevas paradojas en escenarios de (post)conflicto. in FE Torres Penagos, DN Sharp , L Arbour & L Waldorf (eds), Justicia Transicional y Postconflicto . Nuevo Pensamiento Jurídico, Universidad de los Andes/Siglo del Hombre Editores, Bogota, Colombia, pp. 13-96. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvkjb32m

Chapter

Torres, FE 2015, Ley, violencia y comunidad: una lectura de 'El espíritu del cristianismo y su destino' de Hegel. in IC Jaramillo (ed.), Derecho y poder: Aportes al canon transnacional. Universidad de los Andes, pp. 231-255.

Book/Film/Article review

Torres, FE 2024, 'Transitional Justice for Foxes: Conflict, Pluralism & the Politics of Compromise: by Frank Haldemann, Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press, 2023, 238 p., £29.99, ISBN: 9781108928731', Jurisprudence. https://doi.org/10.1080/20403313.2024.2390283

Other contribution

Torres, FE 2023, Call for Input: Thematic Priorities of the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons.. <https://www.ohchr.org/en/calls-for-input/2023/call-input-thematic-priorities-special-rapporteur-human-rights-internally>

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