Glob – Globalisation, Democracy and Power

The research group on Globalisation, Democracy and Power (Glob) brings together International, Constitutional and Administrative lawyers to advance comparative research and scholarship on two key areas of concern for our interconnected societies:

1. Environmental Sustainability and Human Development;
2. Globalisation, Power and Polycentrism.

Many of the group’s IRs have significant expertise and publications in the various strands of environmental law and in the field of urban/territorial planning, which covers a critical collection of knowledge.

With the 1st research strand, the group aims to establish itself as a reference for academic debates in Portugal and abroad, by drawing on its IRs previous research, but mostly by creating the synergies to explore new research avenues, such as energy law, food law, water law, waste law and space waste law. The research conducted under the heading “Globalisation, Power and Polycentrism” builds on the IRs expertise in the field of International, Constitutional and Administrative law to address the academic and practical challenges raised by the emergence of novel forms of governance. This combines different governance levels, private and public actors, networks, global initiatives, normative competition and contamination, etc. with a clear impact on our understanding of power, democracy and law in general.

Both research strands lend themselves to multiple collaboration opportunities with other groups in JusGov (DH, E-Tec, JusCrim) and can be combined to explore, for example, the interplay between development aid/legal transplants and sustainability.

The research outputs will be disseminated through the usual channels of academic journals, edited volumes, and conferences and seminars. Additionally, the group wants to make a clear mark on the academic landscape by publishing two edited volumes (one for each of the research strands) with contributions by IRs and guest authors to be translated into Mandarin, English and Spanish for higher visibility.