The research activity carried out by this group focuses on two essential and complementary aspects of legal activity. On the one hand, in the study of process as an instrument for obtaining effective judicial protection, when in the development of a legal relationship a conflict has arisen or a rule of a criminal nature has been violated, which compromises the essential values and principles of our society, producing in both cases an alteration of social peace and an affectation of legal security, which are essential for the progress of any nation. On the other hand, in the analysis of the complementary instruments to the jurisdiction capable of offering - or not - effective protection of the right and legitimate interests of individuals, when these are compromised in the different areas: civil, criminal, labour or administrative.
As a corollary, the research that this group is developing and will develop involves tackling Article 24 of our Constitution form an interdisciplinary, critical and broad position, which involves a review of constitutional jurisprudence in this respect and its extension to the international sphere, especially that of the EU. Thus, the members of this research group have been paying special attention to European and international law, through participation in various research projects, publications and courses on the procedural activity of international courts, the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments - or not - as well as international legal cooperation.
The research group “ReDePol” (acronym for “Religion, Law and Politics”) was created as a channel for the dissemination and intercommunication of all research and transfer activities related to the study of the legal regime of the religious factor - understood as an integral element of culture and collective identity - and its political and social consequences.
Despite the traditional difficulties in defining what is religious, it is undeniable that what is religious refers to man’s relationship with transcendence, a relationship that initially involves an act of rational and free acceptance by man, which is the act of faith. Thus the act of faith is the first and fundamental characteristic of the religious fact in today’s societies. Alongside this, religion has other essential components: doctrinal (beliefs), cultural (rituals) and moral (ethical behaviour). If we add to this the fact that the externalisation of human acts is an anthropological necessity, religion acquires a social dimension because it originates precisely in a human act (the act of faith). In other words, man has always proceeded in association for the expression and exercise of his religious feelings. Consequently, the religious phenomenon, which has its origin in an internal act, acquires a social or community dimension, which as such a society needs a juridical order to structure it [Ubi societas, ibi ius]. The juridical relevance of the religious fact is inscribed in its social significance. Religion operates in civil society, relates to other non-religious citizens, is subject to civil authorities... Consequently, the religious phenomenon is of public relevance for state law both in terms of foreseeing the civil consequences of religious behaviour, its relations with other members of the political community outside one’s own religion, or the subjection of confessions or groups of believers to state rules. This legal system is the object of study of the science of State Ecclesiastical Law. However, the religious phenomenon is not exhausted in its legal treatment, but must also be covered by the study of other social and human disciplines (psychology, anthropology, politics, philosophy, education, etc.).
For this reason, this group was created with the aim of incorporating specialists from these disciplines, in order to complete a vision of the religious phenomenon from a global perspective.
The activity is based on the study of the application of current territorial legal systems and the problematic of procedures, both from the revenue and expenditure side.
- Law 34/2015 substantially modified all the titles of the General Tax Law, applicable to the Local Treasury. Currently pending approval are the Royal Decrees amending all the Regulations implementing the LGT. Likewise, the new Laws 39/2015 and 40/2015 on Common Administrative Procedure and the Legal Regime of Public Administrations require significant changes to be made to the framework of action of Local Bodies in their relations with citizens, which also affect the tax sphere.
- In recent years, the volume of conflict in relation to local taxes has increased notably, in different dimensions:
- correspondence of the Tax Ordinances to the Constitution, LGT and the LHL.
- procedures for the drafting and approval of said Ordinances.
- acts of local tax management
- The tax control and debt recovery strategies of the regional and local tax authorities are far removed from those designed and successfully implemented by the Tax Agency at the national level.
- On the other hand, at this time of climate change, it is necessary to develop research applied to various simultaneous objectives: combining tourism promotion with sustainable development that preserves the environment as an intrinsic value, the search for new municipal financing formulas that pursue the aforementioned aims and an increase in the financial sufficiency of Local Corporations in covering the cost of services. In Spain there are still few pioneering experiences in this direction, but in the comparative sphere it is possible to look at the solutions applied in environments with similar geographical and tourist singularities. The aim is to project the potential of taxes as fundamental mechanisms to advance in two directions:
- on the one hand, overcoming the endemic scenarios of financial insufficiency of Local Corporations;
- on the other, the suitability of local public action, as the level of government closest to the citizen and on which the objective of safeguarding and improving the idiosyncrasy and values of the municipality operates at the forefront.
- Finally, equality between men and women as well as transparency and good governance must be taken into account when complying with the requirement of fairness in public spending. It is therefore necessary to analyse and propose the general regulatory framework for participatory budgeting and gender budgeting. Indeed, the linking of public spending to objective principles of material justice is an unavoidable requirement. The principle of justice in public spending becomes the material substratum of the obligation of all Public Administrations to draw up their budgets with a gender perspective, since it must be clear that in order to achieve equality, the material justice proclaimed in the Constitution, budgets must be drawn up with a gender perspective, which in no way implies allocating more resources to programmes or actions aimed at women, but only a different way of analysing and drawing up traditional budgets, an action which underlies the achievement of objectives of economic effectiveness and efficiency. But it is not only the public expenditure side, both public income and expenditure, which must be analysed from a gender perspective in order to achieve the financial justice to which they must be directed by constitutional mandate.
The research focuses on the legal perspective of life sciences. The group brings together researchers from various legal disciplines who address the challenges posed by biology, medicine and genetics from legal approaches, making proposals for legislative policy and analysis of complex assumptions arising as a result of the challenges generated by the scientific development of life sciences.
Our group has a long research history of 11 years, from our first national project BJU2003-07935 Contractual development of franchising networks, funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology, to the current CELDEFCOM Licit business coordination in competition law of the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and PROMETEU/ 2015/019/FASEII Business networks and competition law of the Consellería de Educació Generalitat Valenciana. During this period we have obtained and developed a total of five national projects, two Prometeo projects, two contracts with the European Commission for the training of national judges in European competition law and we have also participated in two European research projects or contracts Inter-firm networks in the wine industry in Europe, VI Framework Programme, European Commission, led by Fabrizio Caffaggi (European University Institute), and 'Study on the legal framework covering business-to-business unfair trading practices in the retail supply chain' Tender MARKT/2012/049/E, DG-V OF THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN UNION.
The main focus of our group is, on the one hand, the legal analysis of business collaboration from a multi-faceted perspective, covering contract law - distribution, agency or franchise contracts -, company law - economic interest groupings, joint ventures, clusters or so-called coordination groups -, intellectual property rights - technology transfer or software licensing -, insolvency law - insolvency of a franchisee or car manufacturer and effects on its network of subcontractors or dealers - and competition law - legal framework for business cooperation, cumulative network effects in block exemption regulations, taking into account business networks in merger cases -.
During these years we have published a total of eight collective books, in addition to the six monographs by members of the group, and more than two hundred articles in national and international journals, not to mention the countless commentaries on European and national judgments, as well as the participation of our members in university activities of the EUIPO and the EIPTN. We have also organised a total of 23 national congresses or symposiums, as well as organising countless cycles of conferences and courses with the participation of speakers from other Spanish and foreign universities.
The members of our group have also been regularly invited by other European and American Universities and research groups, as well as having been speakers at more than one hundred conferences and symposia held in other Universities, Institutions or research centres and professional or business forums in our country or abroad.
Our members have spent several stays in prestigious foreign scientific institutions such as the European University Institute of Florence, the Max Planck Institute of Munich and Hamburg, the London School of Economics, Harvard University, Oxford University, the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, the Humbolt University of Berlin, Trinity College of Dublin, or the Università degli Studi di Firenze. Two of our members have received scholarships from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. During this period, we have also read six doctoral theses supervised by members of our group.
This group, which is now applying for access to the register of research groups, has been developing for decades, based on the pioneering studies and research in the field carried out by Professor Jesús Ballesteros, several lines of research, prolonged and updated over time, on various facets of human rights, In recent years, these have focused specifically on issues related to international justice, with special attention to the challenges of peace and sustainable development, the most recent results of which are the following funded research projects, in addition to a significant number of publications and monographs in prestigious publishers and scientific journals:
- Prometeo Phase II project. Reference: PROMETEO II/2014/080. (From 1-1-2014 to 31-12-2017) The role of law in the fight against poverty and social exclusion. Grants for research groups of excellence.
- Global Justice Programme (Diké). Grants to research groups for the constitution and accreditation of ISIC (Higher Institutes for Cooperative Research) networks of excellence. Reference: ISIC/2012/017 (From 1-1-2012 to 31-12-2015).
- PROMETEO Programme for research groups of excellence. Generalitat Valenciana (Valencian Government). From 1-I-2010 to 31-XII-2013. Human rights, sustainability and peace. Main researcher: Jesús Ballesteros.
- The MEC R+D+I Research Project, directed by Dr. J. Ballesteros: Globalisation and International Justice: human security, peace and sustainable development (SEJ-2007-67270/JURI).
- The Generalitat's R+D+I project (2007-2008) directed by Dr. Encarnación Fernández: States in crisis and international justice (GV/2007/061).
- The R&D&I project funded by the Generalitat Valenciana (Valencian Government), directed by Dr. Pilar González Altable: The theory of democracy in the face of contemporary challenges; civic competence and globalisation (GV00-158-08).
This research group also constitutes the core of professors responsible for a doctoral programme that has a long history dating back to 1989 with the doctoral programme entitled "Derechos humanos, ética y democracia" (Spanish for Human Rights, Ethics and Democracy). This programme was followed by "Human Rights and Current Problems" (an international programme in collaboration with the University of Palermo and with a mention of quality); at present, Professor Ballesteros himself directs the PhD programme entitled "Sostenibilidad y Paz en la era posglobal" (Spanish for Sustainability and Peace in the post-global era).
The formal constitution of this group responds to an increasing demand for specialised studies and work, with a practical orientation, in the field of human rights, peace and sustainable development, which contribute new lines of action and suggest effective mechanisms for the protection and guarantee of rights in different fields in the face of the new challenges facing society.
There is a broad social awareness of the need to deepen the idea of the indivisibility and interdependence of human rights, as a response to the terrible scourges (wars, underdevelopment and the indiscriminate and savage exploitation of natural resources) that plague humanity. Society demands to assume the perspective that gives primacy to the full realisation and fulfilment of all rights for all human beings (not only those of the first world) and to put the emphasis not only on economic growth but on a truly human and sustainable development (centred on the satisfaction of people's basic needs). From this perspective, it is possible to contribute to peace-building at the local level (countries devastated by conflicts of all kinds) and at the global level. In other words: peace, development and the realisation of rights can only be achieved together.
The main research activity of the group formed under the name “Human Rights and Inclusive Democracy in a Global World”, under the direction and coordination of professor Javier de Lucas, aims to promote research in the different areas in which the members are experts and the transfer of knowledge to society through the publication of the results obtained in the field of human rights.
The group has a strong expertise in issues related to the guarantee of human rights within the model of inclusive democracy and the challenges posed to this framework by a global world. A large majority of the members of the group have been involved in multiple research projects investigating these issues. The aim of the creation of this group is to continue developing the essential research on issues related to: the extension of the concept of citizenship; the political participation of the migrant population; the guarantee of social rights as a basis for the integration of the population; the construction of indicators for the evaluation of the development of public policies for the integration of people and the guarantee of their rights; the guarantee of fundamental rights in multicultural societies, among others, all of which are essential for the construction of an inclusive democracy. In this sense, and benefiting from the knowledge acquired, as well as from the wide network of knowledge exchange and synergies woven at national and international level, the group intends to continue analysing the new challenges that today’s society face with regard to the guarantee of rights.
Individual and Family rights are two strongly connected areas of the legal system, which are undergoing an increasing evolution in modern societies, with great repercussions for people's daily lives and the free development of their personalities.
The importance of the subjects, that form the object of these disciplines and their continuous transformations, justify the existence of a Research Group aimed at studying them and transferring the results of the research carried out to society.
The members of the Group have been involved in individual and family rights for many years, both individually and as a cohesive group.
They have thus participated in joint projects, under the co-ordination of the person in charge, such as "Daños en el Derecho de Familia", Thomson-Aranzadi, 2006; "Comentarios a las reformas del Derecho de Familia de 2005", Thomson-Aranzadi, 2006; "Veinticinco años de aplicación de la Ley Orgánica 1/1982, de 5 de mayo, de protección civil del derecho al honor, a la intimidad personal y familiar, y a la propia imagen"; Thomson-Aranzadi, 2007; "El derecho a la imagen desde todos los puntos de vista", Thomson-Aranzadi, 2011; "Responsabilidad civil en las relaciones familiares", Thomson-Aranzadi, 2012; "Derecho Civil I" (Individual rights), 2nd ed., Tirant lo Blanch, 2021; "Derecho Civil IV (Family rights)", 4th ed.,Tirant lo Blanch, 2021; "Tratado práctico interdisciplinar de las crisis familiares", Tirant lo Blanch, 2021; y "La compensación por desequilibrio en la separación y divorcio", Tirant lo Blanch, 2021.
They have participated as members of the Research Projects (of which the lead researcher is the head of the Group) "La protección del derecho a la propia imagen frente medios de comunicación y nuevas amenazas tecnológicas" (2009-14519-C05-05), MINECO; "Impacto social de las crisis familiares" (DER2013-47577-R.), MINECO; "Governing Inheritance Statutes after the Entry into Force of EU Succession Regulation" (764204 GoinEu); and "Justice Programme" (2014-2020), "Integration, migration, transnational relationships. Governing inheritance statutes after the entry into force of EU succession regulations" (796041 GoInEUPlus), "Justice Programme" (2014-2020).
They are currently participating in the following research projects (of which the lead researcher is the head of the Group) "La modernización del derecho de familia a través de la práctica jurisprudencial" (AICO/2021/0900), Generalidad Valenciana; y "Adaptation of rights in rem in cross-border successions within EU" (101007501 EU-ADAPT), JUST-JCOO-AG-2020.
Legal analysis of national and international tax regulations from a constitutional, EU law and comparative perspective. Verification of the legality of the procedures for applying the taxes that form part of the tax systems.
Criminal law has a two-faced character: on the one hand, it prevents the commission of crimes and thus protects the rights of all citizens, and on the other hand, it guarantees that the state's power to punish is exercised in accordance with a series of guarantees, which is why it especially protects the fundamental rights of the accused and convicted. It is from this tension between prevention and guarantees that dogmatics has traditionally studied the foundations and limits of the legal system. To this end, the central position of constitutional principles and the protection of fundamental rights has served to defend a political-criminal discourse in which respect for the general principle of freedom can legitimise the state's ius puniendi. However, the analysis of contemporary criminal law shows a marked tendency towards an increase in punitive rigour and towards the consideration of criminal dangerousness as a basis for criminal sanctions. This trend can be easily observed in the legislative reforms of the Spanish Criminal Code since its approval in 1995, being of particular importance the Organic Law 1/2015 on the reform of the Criminal Code, which introduces institutions of dubious constitutionality such as permanent revisable prison, as well as the expansion of security measures such as probation. In both cases, it is prognoses of criminal dangerousness that are the basis for the execution of sanctions.
The research group on "Crime Prevention and protection of civil liberties" aims to study this evolution, starting from respect for constitutional principles and the protection of fundamental rights as a methodological framework for research, in order to critically assess the inadequacies of these new political-criminal trends, using the training in Criminology of most of the members of the group to establish relations between Criminology and Criminal Law. The interdisciplinary nature of the research group will make it possible to study responses that can adapt the guarantee-based discourse to the implementation of effective preventive techniques in the face of the new political-criminal challenges of social change, as well as assessing the suitability of new forms of conflict resolution, such as restorative justice, to the criminal justice system, such as criminal mediation. Likewise, specific criminological phenomena will be studied, such as the prevention and treatment of sexual crime, as well as cybercrime cases where the criminal act presents a correlation with the advances derived from information technology.
In any case, the activity of the research group will seek to offer a perspective that integrates comparative criminal law, as well as international regulations, in order to reinforce the resulting lege lata and lege ferenda proposals.
The research activity to be carried out by the "New Conflicts and Process" Research Group focuses on the study of the constant adaptation of procedural rules to the new conflicts generated in society, both by the economic crisis - which requires an interpretation of the legal system in accordance with the context in which it is applied - and by the growing evolution of legal relations through the information society, and, in general, by the massification of litigation.
The procedural instrument must be adequate to enable both individuals who bring cases before the courts and the courts to obtain and grant, respectively, judicial protection of rights and legitimate interests. The lack of adaptation of procedural rules to the new conflicts generated by today's society can be an obstacle to obtaining effective judicial protection (art. 24 EC), one of the fundamental rights enshrined in our Constitution. In civil proceedings, for example, there is an increasing tendency to socialise them, moving from individual proceedings between two opposing parties to proceedings for the defence of collective interests of general scope, the defence of which cannot, for practical reasons, be the responsibility of individual parties. As far as criminal proceedings are concerned, the planned reform of these requires the incorporation of the doctrine developed by the TC - and which has been the subject of detailed study by this research group.
This research group already has a long track record, backed up by nationally and internationally subsidised research projects, which have analysed issues such as techniques to improve the effectiveness of certain rights; the reform of civil procedure and its current application by legal professionals; the system of appeals before the high courts of justice, the reform of criminal procedure or the right to appeal in criminal procedure, the latter being the subject on which it is currently working.
The constitution of the research group stems from a history of collaborations in an area of common interest such as the study of social policies in general and in particular those instruments of public social protection aimed at covering situations of need whose central point is work (or rather its absence) and the consequences that this fact has on people’s lives, generating a space of exclusion from which without the help of public support it is very difficult to get out. In this sense, most of the researchers in this group are currently participating in an R&D, MINECO of which I am the PI, with the title “Los instrumentos de protección social pública en la gestión del cambio laboral”, DER2014-52549-C4-4-R (National R&D&I Plan, “Research Challenges”, Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness). This is a project in the modality of Coordinated Projects, in which the coordinating project is being developed by the University of Seville, under the guidelines of Professor Cruz Villalón, with the title “Retos de la gestión del cambio en la empresa desde la perspectiva laboral y social”, DER2014-52549-C.
Among the objectives of this group:
- To analyse from an international and local perspective the effectiveness of employment policies in ensuring citizens’ access to quality employment that guarantees a dignified existence away from poverty and the capacity of such policies to rescue people who have been excluded from employment and society and are part of vulnerable groups, in a situation or at risk of socio-occupational exclusion. In short, the aim is to identify employment policies that generate inclusive labour markets.
- To study the impact that the socio-occupational changes, which have taken place in recent years, have had on the adequacy in terms of coverage and intensity of the benefits of the social protection system and to identify its deficiencies as an additional manifestation of the rebalancing of interests derived from the processes of change in the business reality. The analysis covers both contributory and welfare unemployment benefits, minimum income for inclusion, as well as social action and social assistance measures.
- To study the issues surrounding the sustainability of the public social protection system and to explore the possibilities of achieving its rebalancing through the generation of quality jobs in productive and competitive companies.
- To analyse the structural conception of labour change in the company, balanced in the consideration of the different interests present in it, designed from the initial consideration of the Spanish legal system but conceived in the context of European policies, from comparative premises and eventually from other European legal systems.
- To assess the role of FOGASA in situations of extreme need of companies (insolvency and bankruptcy) and evaluate the possibilities of using wage credit protection formulas to finance the compensation for termination of contracts, as well as its reuse in the achievement of training and employment itineraries or access to partial retirement.
- To analyse the vocational training system for employment, pointing out its shortcomings and deficiencies, and to formulate proposals for improvement so that it adapts to the demands of the business world and, at the same time, contributes to increasing the employability of workers.
- To examine the role of public employment services as agents of labour intermediation and to explore measures that contribute to their modernisation and improvement and, ultimately, to increasing their effectiveness and efficiency in the placement of unemployed people. To assess the effectiveness of economic incentives in creating and maintaining employment, in particular with regard to the vulnerable.
Analysis of gender inequalities in the socio-economic field, both in the area of public policies and in the relations between private subjects and within organisations, using the methodological tools of legal science, sociology, economics and social work.
The aim is to identify the legal concepts of the so-called Ancien Régime that are discussed in the liberal courts from the beginning of the 19th century onwards.
From their discussion in the Spanish parliament, we seek to know to what extent all these elements are replaced by a new legal and doctrinal formulation. We are interested in seeing to what extent and to what extent the substitution of a regime which, contrary to what is sometimes thought, we believe remained, on many occasions, unalterable or with slight modifications over the years, is effectively carried out.
On the occasion of the first liberal courts, legislators turned their gaze towards political and legal institutions that were almost obligatory or which, with the new times, they would reinterpret in an ideologically interested or, at least, updated way, that is, from a new construction of what power and its legitimacy were. But the social and economic context was very different, and its imprint on the letter of the law was inevitable; it only remains for us to specify to what extent.
What we want to do is to identify these legal and political reinterpretations and their manifestations in the new codifying legislation.
It is therefore a field of study that is not very clear-cut, since the reformulation of the entire system did not entail its repeal or replacement, but rather, at times, its complete maintenance, albeit in new forms. As for the content, we will have to see what its transition to the new wording will be.
From these difficult frontiers, we will delve into both institutions and law, both public and private. That is to say, we are interested in both the reformulation of what the parliament itself is, and the legislation that emanates from it, both for the construction of a new justice and a new administration in its various territorial demarcations. Therefore, we will study both substantive, civil, administrative or constitutional law, as well as organic and procedural procedural law.
Legal analysis of the new realities and challenges in the world of employment and social protection. Based on the evidence that the world of work is in constant transformation and the impact of new technologies applied to production systems and the relationships that develop in this area, the group aims to investigate these and their consequences from an exclusively legal perspective.
The specific objective is therefore focused exclusively on the examination of transformations and new legal-social phenomena, with special emphasis on those of greatest public importance. In this sense, the group's activity will focus on analysing the legal reforms that occur in the labour law, reflecting on their practical application through the study of judicial doctrine and forensic practice.
The group is born with the vocation of transferring the results of the research to society, with special emphasis on the practical application of its conclusions. To this end, in addition to the research activity, special attention will be paid to the preparation of opinions or reports, the organisation of conferences and seminars, and the publication of the results of the research.
