JusLab provides a sounding board for collaborative action of legal scholars and judges, lawyers, court officials, policy makers, civil society representatives, and other practitioners; it is our Centre’s Group designed to play a hands-on role in bridging a gap that weakens the health of our social fabric and the trust placed in institutions: the precarious connection between legal practice and scholarship. Sensitive to such a gulf, our research retains its focus on meeting our strategic mandate and is centred on 4 priorities: 1) the rule of law and effective judicial protection, 2) judicial decision-making, 3) court innovation, and 4) justice and social change. Our purpose is straightforward: to get plugged into today’s global drive for more accountable, effective, and humane justice systems. In this process, JusLab is intended to play a pioneering role.

This Group’s remit is clear and comprehensive, with a focus on awareness-raising and decision-making processes, and hence our emphasis on the training of legal practitioners, while directing research towards the planning, implementation, and evaluation of new policies and practices, as well as the real needs of those who are most vulnerable. Following the spirit of JusGov, we are responding to the mounting questions about justice raised by societal shifts and cross-border connections, be they regarding family ties, issues of diasporas, intercultural affairs, or multilevel jurisdictions.

We assume a leading role in the promotion of groundbreaking projects and rely on the up-and-coming generations of researchers and students to be fit for the times ahead, while we also prioritise the accessibility of research and judicial decisions to the wider public, not least in the context of democratic states organised under the rule of law. We are aware that judicial rulings are meant to be lawful and that this legitimacy is meant to be understandable, which is why we are analysing in an interdisciplinary way the complex interpretative processes behind them and exploring the role of legal language and hermeneutics in making decisions, constantly reflecting on the potential for research to shape policy and bring about legal transformation whilst striving to promote social justice worldwide, consistent with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Agenda.