María Jesús García is a professor at the University of Valencia. After finishing her degree in Law, she was awarded a doctoral research scholarship by the Spanish Department of Education, and she went on to receive her PhD in Law from the University of Valencia. Her area of expertise is Public Law and European Union Law.

She is the holder of the Jean Monnet Chair "Services of General Economic Interest in the framework of social and territorial integration". She is also the leader of the Jean Monnet module "Citizens´ integration into European Union democracy". The European Commission awarded both in 2021.

She is a teaching member of JM Module  “Communicating EU for Participating”, (COMEU4PAR - Pr. n. 101175902), coordinated by Angela Maria Romito (Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro).

She has worked for the European Union Executive Agency as an expert evaluating proposals under Horizon Europe work programs.

María Jesús García was a fellow with the Ash Center's Government Innovation Program (Harvard University) in 2017.

She has been awarded four positive research assessments by the Commission for the Assessment of Research Activity and has also been a Visiting Fellow at the Open University School of Law (United Kingdom) since 2014.

María Jesús García is the author of seven books: Citizens´ participation in European Unión Lawming in the frame of smart regulation, 2020, Community Service as a Punishment Imposed by Public Bodies, 2014; The basics of Spanish Administrative Law, 2020 (published in English); The Legal Framework of Cultural Heritage Conservation, 2000; The Legal Framework of Urban Restoration, 1999; Environmental Protection of Public Waters, 2003. She has also published several papers in specialized journals dealing with a wide range of subjects. Her area of expertise is European Union Law. In this regard, she has published several papers dealing with this topic in different institutional journals, such as Smart regulation lawmaking and participatory democracy: consultation in the European Union, 2019 (Published in English); Scope and limits to the participation in public affairs by means of the European Citizenship Status, 2018; Citizen participation and European legal provisions: an untapped potential, 2020.

She is the director of the book “European democracy and the single market: 30 years of the Maastricht Treaty” (Aranzadi, 2024) in which different experts in Community law from different EU member states participated.
She is also the author of the book “I, the European Union”, (Tecnos, 2024).

In 2023 her research dealing with consumers´ rights in the field of services of general economic interest has been awarded the Gabilex prize. In 2019 she was awarded the Blas Infante Prize by the Autonomous Government of Andalucia for her research book Citizens ‘participation in European Union Lawmaking in the frame of smart regulation. Also in 2019 she was the runner-up in the call hold by C.E.F, for her research paper entitled THE EUROPEAN ELECTORAL SYSTEM: WHEN THE TOTAL IS NOT EQUAL TO THE SUM OF ITS PARTS. In 2010, her research work dealing with participatory democracy in local government was awarded the Local Government Studies prize by the Democracy and Local Government Association. She was also awarded the School of Law of Granada prize in 2012 for her research paper dealing with minors´ liability and the penalty of community service.

She has given talks in the aforementioned foreign universities dealing with the European Union and other topics.