biograf y otra cosa
Ruiz-Restrepo is a jurist.
Her work as an attorney, political scientist, philanthropist, human rights defender and civic advocate reflects her theoretical interest on the correlation of human liberty and utility; the autonomy and heteronomy tension within the course of action of a natural or legal person.
This intellectual inquiry along with the interplay of law, development and civil society in her professional practice, and the field experience gathered through different cultures and languages are at the basis of her novel approaches and propositions.
Ruiz-Restrepo is an internationally recognized expert in the realm of law, policy, and regulation of Civil Society Organisations. She is the author of the Theory of Alterity as Intention (Ruiz-Restrepo,2011) a system of thought rationalising not-for-profit/charitable organizations of the third/voluntary sector. The theory first unveils the structural reason for constant vagueness and instability around the nebula of pro-social organisations, and then posits their juridical nature -the underlying principle of juridical alterity in civil society organisations- to present them as a logical universe of entities. As with most innovators, Ruiz-Restrepo applies her insights and findings directly in the field by the creation or initiation of processes of change and reform.
As with most innovators, Ruiz-Restrepo applies her insights and findings directly in the field by the creation or initiation of processes of change and reform. Hence, her work..
In other words, I am a jurist and lawyer working both on the theory and the practice of law.
The core interest of my theoretical work lies on human integrity or unified individuation. Concretely on its deployment through human will or agency. Freedom of initiative and freedom of consent, and their inverse facet, responsibility of initiative and responsibility of consent, are the expression of individual auto-determination. It is how decision-making capacity is materialized in each individual. Human will and decisions reflect the underlying logic of action and crystallize the person’s mindset and its manifestation within society acquiring, therefore, juridical transcendence. This cognitive process of individual decision making that happens prior to its manifestation is constantly subject to an autonomy-utility tension throughout the life span of the human person as well as through the course of action of a legal person, as all contemporary individualities exist amidst a plural human society and are set within a vast territory and diverse environment.
My intellectual journey began very early as a girl asking broad questions, with intense curiosity and engaging personally in the betterment of the societal field of my everyday life along mind like friends in school and later in the university. This led to raising my questions within the academic setting of the faculties of law and political science faculties which later had to unbox and move forward in an interdisciplinary way and independent research effort. I have sustained my life long enquiry along my professional practice of law as an attorney, legal counsel and policy strategist in matters of public law and regulation (constitutional, civil liberties/human rights, administrative and penal rules and statutes) and democratic governance and inclusive development affairs.
My work in theory and practice of law has been intensely enriched with cross-cultural research gathered by field experience from different cultures around the world and distilled from the understanding drawn through working in different languages. Just a few but nevertheless languages that are spoken vastly around this globe of differences within a common humanity; languages made of historically rooted concepts now rapidly intertwining under the current globalisation force of the economy. In sum transcultural interest in reading, discussing, traveling and observing, in that precise order, are the basis of my intellectual thought and work on law and society.
As with most innovators, I think for action. Thus I apply my theoretical insights and findings directly on the field of reality by creating or initiating processes of change and reform. Hence most of my propositions and innovations made in law or through law -initiatives for re-engineering of the rules of the game- which are advanced in an attorney capacity, as a human rights defender, a philanthropist, public interest litigator or civic advocate are ideas found chiefly in documents rather than specialized journal publications. From written arguments presented to a court, advocacy pieces for law reform, inclusive policy-making projects, edutainment products citizen-led economy models for community organizing and enterprising and civic anti-corruption and anti-impoverishment oversight reports as well as some public statements, opinion journalism, and publications.
Although my professional work for clients is strictly bound by confidentiality all the outcome of my work, all the understanding distilled as a legally trained professional and political scientist working in the interplay of fixed and established language and law and the changing society and its human conscience and intellect, draws from and also feedbacks into my enquiry on the autonomy-heteronomy correlation of human will formation or individual agency.
I have been fortunate enough to see some of my contributions grass rooting in society and also adopted and implemented through texts of law and policy both nationally in my home country and in other countries of which I am not a national by international migration of thought and initiative or multilateral policy dialogue. I have been internationally recognized as an expert in matters of law, policy, and regulation of Civil Society Organisations. Subsequently, I am invited to attend as a speaker or expert to global policy dialogue events of governments and intergovernmental organisations as well as private sector fora of social and corporate actors engaging, through their firms and organisations, in governance, development and social innovation affairs.
In the year 2011, I culminated a sustained effort of interdisciplinary and cross-cultural research and reflection with the Theory of Alterity as Intention. It is a system of thought for the redefinition, rationalization, and verification of the universe of so-called not-for-profit/charitable organizations of the third/voluntary sector of society. The theory and its distinguishing system of the legal nature in a legal person aim to strengthen the specific identity and safeguard the connatural space of action of civil society organizations under the rule of law and increasing clarity and precision in their daily interactions in the marketplace and the public square of society. In 2017 I wrapped up the last phase of my twenty-year quest with a reflection on the phenomenology of legal persons. This last step was necessary to be able to explain to an ample and not-legally-trained audience my integral work. To share findings and conclusions of what I understand to be the nascent area of organized civil society law and its alterity-intentioned organizations to the vast civil society the key incumbent actor or stakeholder in all my work.
A full bio and CV of my intellectual, professional and civic life itinerary is available here. In the personal gallery of this web page, I have included some pictures and videos to illustrate it and remember some colleagues and friends made along the way. The four pillars of knowledge on which I have based my research, reflection, and action, – the study of civil society, the law, human initiative and globalization- have been separately and very concisely explained in the boxes above. Otherwise, the concrete theorization and innovation contributions and their impact in securing transparent and sustainable city sanitation, countering human commodification and modern enslavement and the enquiry on the epistemology and ontology of the Third sector have also been synthesized under a pertinent section. They are intended to provoke conversations to either develop a proposed idea by suggested expansion or implementation or to criticize it explaining its faults and the need of discarding it or fine tuning it. Conversations are welcome through any social media channels correspondence is also possible through email.
Finally, the organizations in which I work professionally and philanthropically are mentioned below. My personal library and think-tank space set to hold the back then very scarce and valuable bibliography on NGOs and NPOs to support my Ph.D. research is now partially online and embedded in both the law firm and the civism and solidarity foundation where I work for profit and for alterity. Curated digital documents are constantly uploaded to make them accessible to the think-tank members as a shared knowledge center. It is structured in three chambers of reading reflection and conversation or labs. The Alteritas lab and shelves are dedicated to gathering understanding, knowledge, and information on the non-governmental and not-for-profit sector or as per my definition the Alterity driven sector of society and its derived civil -social and solidarity- economy. The Empoder lab and shelves are dedicated to dedicate to gathering understanding, knowledge, and information on juridical and legal empowerment processes for poverty reduction human development and equity in societal regulation. The third and last area of focus the Innocial lab and shelves are dedicated to dedicate to gathering understanding, knowledge, and information on the innovation of commercial actors, thinkers and tech-developers in management and efficiency strategies tactics and techniques that are applicable and apt to everything social.
skills en excel y otras
is a law & strategy firm of attorneys and consultants. Incorporated in 2009 as Ruiz-Restrepo & Associates it is a one-stop shop for protection, defence and orientation for individuals and organisations with stakes and operations in any of the commercial, voluntary, governmental or international sectors of society. Clients who need legal counsel, representation or strategic advice to strenghthen their intiatives and cases found or set in the interplay of public regulation and intense community expectations. 
The Civicness and Solidarity Foundation for Systemic Change is a non-partisan, non-religious, non-governmental, not-for-profit entity, or followng Ruiz-Restrepo’s positive identity theory, Civisol is a private, civil and alterity driven organisation of the foundational or altruistic type.
