Area of concentration: Constitutionalism, Transnationality, and Sustainability
Lines of research
Constitutional Principiology, Law Policy, and Artificial Intelligence
The reflection on the production of norms legitimized by the Society has been fertile soil for scholars. Seen this way, the theoretical instrument destined for the production of legal norms emerges from the recognition of the importance of the dialectics of social life as praxis of law, capable of nourishing the production of fair, useful, and appropriate law to the community. The lawmaker fulfills the duty to listen to the feelings of material, ethical, aesthetic values of society to transform them into rights – to be guaranteed by the legal norm. The lawmaker is not only responsible for the task of producing the law, but also for ensuring its applicability and the achievement of its objectives. The ideal of the fair, the good, the useful, is a task of the permanent search for the law. Therefore, the study and research in Law Production Policy are a founding requirement for doctoral training, especially considering the area of concentration to which the doctoral students will link their research.
The line of research Law Production Policy implies the study of several theoretical conceptions that focus on the theme. However, considering all these conceptions is not a simple task, since some of these theories (principiological ones, strictly within the legal sphere; constitutionalist ones, within a general theory of law and policies; or even substantialist ones) come from an approach that uses different values. Other theories are based eminently on formal and procedural referents. All these theoretical challenges and the controversies that arise from them, thus, become the object of the treatment of the Line of Research "Constitutional Principiology, Law Policy, and Artificial Intelligence", and two of its most pressing issues can be summarized as follows.
First, it is highlighted that the reflections of a principiological conjuncture on the specific field of Constitutional Law end up affecting the classical structure of the hierarchical rigidity of norms. These norms, in the Kelsenian model, are led by the fundamental norm (not positive, but presupposed by reason) and its other laws subordinated to it. Under a new principiological focus, the classical positivist model gives way to new paradigms in which the unity of norms can only be perceived in contexts linked to concrete cases, that is, under a pragmatic approach.
Secondly, it is worth noting that such pragmatic theories arise from the use of diverse methodologies and sometimes irreconcilable approaches (according to authors and theoretical conceptions). Therefore, one of the objectives of this Line of Research is to study the various pragmatic-formal theories that focus on the interpretation and application of constitutional principles as well as the policy foundations that serve them as a theoretical matrix and direct the constitutional principiology reality.
State, Transnationality, and Sustainability
The line of research called "State, Transnationality, and Sustainability" aims to discuss profoundly the phenomenon that creates the new legal relations arising from the capitalist hegemony after 1989, from the perspective of an emerging country such as Brazil.
This complex scenario demands new reflections on the role of the State and the understanding and effectiveness of the guarantee of rights and the limitation of political and economic powers. Studying law in the context of transnationality and considering it as arising from power relations – whether political, economic, or of any other nature, present in the current emerging global reality is, therefore, fundamental.
In this sense, one can speak of Law and Transnationality to refer to the economic, political, and legal relations that are globally spread nowadays, such as regional integration blocs and the regulation that takes place through international organizations. In the context of the Production of Law, the Transnational nature serves to include all norms that regulate acts or facts that transcend national borders. At this pace, the concept of State Sovereignty undergoes profound transformation and the possibility of the democratic overcoming of the Modern Constitutional State is already being studied.
The International Order is progressively interdependent, especially concerning the environment and the economy, subjects that do not know national borders and make transnationality their main characteristic. In the light of these transformations, high-level legal research is justified, capable of investigating the foundations that guide Constitutionalism, Transnationality, and the Production of Law in the global sphere. There is no more room for fragmented studies, without taking into account the rapid pace of globalization and a pressing vision beyond national borders. The foundations of the Production of Law that guide the transnational legal reality and the role of the State lead, therefore, to intense scientific debate that requires propositions arising from research of high theoretical density at the doctoral level.
The doctoral program student must complete at least 72 credits, distributed as follows:
Up to 30 master's degree credits can be used
Compulsory subjects: 09 credits
Elective subjects: 06 credits
Seminar on Research Methodology and Defense of the Thesis Project: 09 credits
Guided Research Seminar: 06 credits
Preparation and Defense of the Thesis: 12 credits
Note: when forwarding the Thesis for defense, the doctoral student must also have at least two (2) publications (article in indexed journal, book chapter, or full text published in indexed events annals) for each year of the course, which were issued during their doctoral period.
a) Compulsory subjects (3 credits per discipline)
b) Elective subjects (2 credits each)
Transnational Environmental Legal Dimensions
Fundamental Rights and Sustainability
Transnational Social Engineering and Sustainability
Contemporary State and Environmental Law
Hermeneutics and Constitutional Argumentation
The Law and the Transnational Digital Society
Principiology and Constitutional Policy
Production and application of law in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
c) Seminar on Research Methodology and Thesis Project - 09 credits
d) Guided Research Seminar - 06 credits
e) Preparation and Defense of the Thesis - 12 credits