The Research Group will continue its basic research work on contemporary International Law and European Union law, in which two central themes predominate: multilevel governance in any of the topics addressed, and the aims and milestones of the Agenda 2030. During this period, the research areas to which the competitive research projects financed and coordinated by the members of the Group pertain will be particularly developed.
Therefore, in the priority research areas to be carried out in the following three years, the following research lines can be identified:
a) Interrelation between the maintenance of international peace and security, international humanitarian law and the international protection of human rights.
The maintenance of international peace and security as the purpose of the United Nations and the codification of the progressive development of International Humanitarian Law have been two interrelated and highly relevant aspects of the international legal order. This is an area in which the Group has extensive experience. Moreover, action in this area cannot be dissociated from the cross-cutting action involved in the international protection of human rights, a line of action in which the Research Group has been consolidating itself through participation in and coordination of research projects, the focus of which has been on human rights.
In the coming period, the main activity will focus mainly on the development of the projects that, coordinated by members of the group, are working on this subject. More specifically, the work to be carried out by the researchers of the research project examining regulatory constraints in a multilevel governance framework for the formulation of anti-poverty strategies (PID2020-117627GB-I00) coordinated by Dr. Jordi Bonet; as well as the researchers of the project examining regulatory constraints in a multilevel governance framework for the formulation of anti-poverty strategies (PID2020-117627GB-I00) coordinated by Dr. Jordi Bonet; as well as the members of the project on gender equality and beliefs in the framework of the 2030 Agenda (PID2020-114400GB-I00) and the one on the protection of victims of hate crimes based on religion or beliefs (DER2017-86138-P), both coordinated by Dr. Francisca Pérez Madrid. Also noteworthy is the project on secession, democracy and human rights, coordinated by Dr. Helena Torroja (PID2019-106956RB-I00) and the interdisciplinary project, coordinated by Dr. Rosana Alija, on the scope and international legal content of the state’s obligation to guarantee non-repetition through education in memory as a key tool to prevent the repetition of serious human rights violations (ICI01521_00013/2021).
b) The deepening integration of the European Union and its legal consequences for the citizen
The deepening of the process of European integration has brought with it new legal challenges and problems which affect the status of individuals and which have not yet been adequately addressed. From this perspective, the Research Group currently has experts in the field of European law. In this respect, the following areas will be analysed in the coming period, in particular in the light of the research projects of which the members of the Group are coordinators:
– The examination of the regime of real rights over tangible property in the field of European private international law, focusing on the problems of international jurisdiction and questions relating to applicable law (PID2020-112609GB-I00 coordinated by Dr. Georgina Garriga).
– The analysis of the consequences of the changes made in recent years in the area of European Economic and Monetary Union increased the European treatment of Member States’ economic and budgetary policies. However, many of the new European structures were born out of the urgency of the crisis, and suffer not only from the exceptional nature of the situations that triggered them, but also from considerable doses of legal improvisation in the face of the speed of these situations. The reflection for new transformations to deepen and improve the EMU is the subject of the Future and Legal Challenges of the Economic and Monetary Union project (PGC2018-094489-B-I00), coordinated by Dr. Andreu Olesti.
c) Biodiversity, climate and global public health in international law
The general objective of this line of research identifies both the challenges and opportunities that the Covid-19 crisis has created in relation to the international and European legal frameworks applicable to the international conservation and protection of biodiversity, as well as in the fight against climate change. The contribution of possible responses that strengthen international cooperation and the creation of synergies between these areas to influence, in the medium and long term, global public health and the post-Covid-19 recovery process, are the object of the research project on the interactions and challenges of international law with respect to these matters (PID2020-117379GB-I00), coordinated by Dr. Mar Campins.
In the same context, prior to the outbreak of the Covid-19 crisis, the intrinsic value of biodiversity and the need to protect it collectively against the threats posed by its exploitation and use through new scientific, technological and, particularly, biotechnological developments are analysed. The interaction of different legal and regulatory regimes, problems, the impact of scientific and technological developments, and the difficulties of biodiversity governance are aspects examined by the project on biological diversity and international law (DER2017-85406-P), coordinated by Dr Xavier Pons and Dr Mar Campins. The research activities in this line are complemented by those developed by the Jean Monnet Chair on Environmental Law (619574-EPP-1-2020-1-SE-EP) held by Dr. Mar Campins.