The Universidad Autónoma de Chile has awarded the honorary doctorate to the full university professor of Procedural Law at the Universitat de València Silvia Barona. The session, held on 16th March, was headed by the Chilean principal Teodoro Rivera Neumann, accompanied by the vice-principal for Research and Doctoral Studies, Iván Suazo; the vice-principal for Outreach, Mauricio Vial; and the director of the Institute for Research in Law, Andrea Lucas.
Silvia Barona had just received another honorary doctorate on 8th March, this time from the Norbert Wiener University in Peru.
With scientific training in Germany (DAAD, Max-Planck, Alexander von Humboldt grantholder), Silvia Barona wrote her doctoral thesis at the Max-Planck-Institut in Freiburg. She has carried out research stays at several prestigious universities (Cambridge, Harvard, Edinburgh...) and has been invited to speak at numerous European and Latin American universities. She is a permanent member of the Spanish National Codification Commission, Procedural section.
She has an extensive scientific output and national and international impact. Author of more than 600 publications, including 21 books (sole authorship) and 24 books edited or coordinated by her, with publications in several languages and in national and foreign journals. A pioneer in ADR (mediation and arbitration), she leads the MedArb Valencia excellence group, connected to a network of national and international collaborators.
She has also worked on issues such as protection against unfair competition, restorative justice, the accused conformity, civil and criminal precautionary measures. Her recent activity includes her work on the “History of the criminal process”, and her lines of research on digitalisation and the application of artificial intelligence in Justice and the feminisation of Justice, with her recent book “Algoritmización del Derecho y de la Justicia. De la Inteligencia Artificial a la Smart Justice” and “Justicia algorítimica y neuroderecho”.
Silvia Barona already held honorary doctorates from the universities of Santa Cruz de la Sierra (Bolivia), Örebro (Sweden), Inca Garcilaso (Peru), and was an honorary professor at the University of Vigo. She is also an honorary member of the Cuban Society of Procedural Law and holds the Grand Cruz de San Raimundo de Peñafort (2010) - the highest distinction for a jurist in Spain. Finally, she is an honorary consulship holder of the Lonja de Comerciantes de Valencia.
She was also the first woman to chair the Alexander von Humboldt Association in Spain, an organisation that pays tribute to this scientist, naturalist, astronomer, and explorer, considered to be the driving force behind empirical geography, who lived from 1769 to 1859.
Silvia Barona also chairs the Court of Arbitration and Mediation (Valencia Chamber) and she was vice-principal of the Universitat de València from 2010 to 2014.
