PRESENTATION

It is with particular pleasure that, as Scientific Coordinator of the Lisbon Public Law Research Centre (LPL) , I welcome all who visit our website .

The LPL (formerly known as the Centro de Investigação de Direito Público - CIDP) of the University of Lisbon School of Law was founded in 2012 as an autonomous R&D unit of the Institute of Legal and Political Sciences of the same university and incorporating professors of the Group of Legal and Political Sciences and associated researchers.

Accredited and classified in 2014/2015 by an international panel of the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) with Very Good, it was again evaluated and classified in 2019 with Excellent, assuming itself as the research centre with the highest classification, not only of the University of Lisbon School of Law but of all Portuguese Universities of Law.

Composed of a qualified faculty of Public Law that integrates the most prestigious Portuguese university, the LPL includes in its research body researchers and fellows from states as diverse as Portugal, Brazil, China, Spain, Argentina and Ukraine.

The Centre is structured into 4 research groups that cover core areas of Public Law: Constitutional Law and Political Science; Administrative Law; International and European Law; and Theory and Philosophy of Law.

In addition to the groups, research centres or clusters linked to specific lines or permanent research projects operate, such as LLT - Lisbon Legal Theory (in the field of Theory and Philosophy of Law); Digital Rights and Freedoms; the Constitutional Theory Network; Legistics; and the Legal Roadmap for Sustainability.

The intergenerational philosophy of research, openness to new themes emerging in society, the State and the International Community, interdisciplinary research between legal and non-legal areas and internationalisation in the network of researchers, partnerships and research projects have been the main strategic objectives of the LPL since its beginning.

Although it was in the 2014/2015 period that the Centre took its first leap forward in the sphere of innovative research that made it stand out among the R&D units of the legal universe, it was, however, in the 2021/2023 period, after the pandemic period, that a highly professionalised structure was created that allowed a strategic and intensely productive allocation of human and material resources.

Regarding financial resources, it should be noted that, in addition to the state funding resulting from the last evaluation, LPL also receives substantial funding from its private host institution, ICJP, as well as from the European Commission due to important international projects with competitive funding in which it is involved and, also, from private entities that contract research projects.

The LPL, along with several research projects, develops an innovative training project for young researchers in the area of Law - Research Academy in which methodological and transversal tools are offered, fundamental for the elaboration of research projects and master's and doctoral dissertations, aiming at the pursuit of research careers in Public Law.

In addition, the LPL coordinates, together with the ICJP, the online journal e-Publica, an unavoidable reference as a publication of Public Law, available in open access and with peer review. e-Publica, uma referência incontornável como publicação de Direito Público, disponível em acesso aberto e com revisão por pares.

In addition to the extraordinary professionalism of the Coordination and Science Management team, LPL has relied on the enthusiasm of its researchers, especially the younger ones, to whom the extraordinary results of the last evaluation are largely due.

Combining the academic tradition of the University of Lisbon School of Law with scientific innovation in Public Law, the LPL contributes to the resolution of the most recent social challenges, returning to the Portuguese State and to society in general the knowledge of excellence produced by its researchers.