DE LEGIBUS - SPECIAL ISSUE "LAW, STATE AND DEMOCRACY" - CALL FOR PAPERS
DE LEGIBUS - SPECIAL ISSUE
"LAW, STATE AND DEMOCRACY "
CALL FOR PAPERS
At least since the emergence of Nation-States, the relationships — rarely stable — between the elements of the triad “Law, State, and Democracy” have been discussed, viewed either as a continuous integrator or as a spiral, often tending towards rupture. With the democratic regime in crisis in various parts of the world, it is natural that such relationships can and should be critically reassessed today, not only from a legal perspective but also from other approaches. After all, the complexity which characterizes contemporary social, political, and economic dynamics demands interdisciplinary, if not transdisciplinary, theoretical, analytical, and normative outlooks.
To promote a broad and diverse debate, and with the firm intention to reinforce the best practices of international scientific publications and encouraging the democratization of knowledge potentially generated by the works that reach De Legibus Law Review (ISSN: 2182-5912 /e-ISSN: 2976-0542), a biannual periodical publication of the Faculty of Law of Universidade Lusófona (Lisbon) (https://revistas.ulusofona.pt/index.php/delegibus), its Editorial Team announces that it will receive, during the period indicated below, scientific articles to be published in a special issue (expected: June 2025) dedicated to the theme “Law, State, and Democracy”, which will be published both in digital format and in print.
- Guest Editors
- Patrícia André
(CEDIS-Nova School of Law & DINÂMIA'CET-Iscte, Lisbon/Portugal)
- Guilherme Francisco Ceolin
(Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre/Brazil)
- Presentation
This special issue welcomes a variety of methodological approaches and analytical perspectives. Papers of a theoretical or empirical nature, or combining both, will be considered. We also value descriptive studies providing in-depth understanding of the phenomena under analysis, as well as normative research proposing new interpretations or solutions to contemporary challenges. Contributions can approach the proposed issues from multiple points of view: either from the perspective of international law, in the specific context of national legal orders, or through comparative analysis between different systems and realities. We especially encourage interdisciplinary approaches that enrich the dialogue between law and other areas of knowledge, including sociology, political science, and economics, among others.
The theoretical and practical challenges that today face the relationships between Law, State, and Democracy have emerged in the context of societal transformations extraordinarily marked by a framework of multiple and intertwined crises, exponential acceleration of the reconfiguration of social relations, and progressive complexity of the causes, correlations, and effects of changes in social, political, economic, and cultural dynamics. This accelerated transformation, which has been felt, especially in the last three decades, throughout the world emerging from economic and technological globalization, has been intensified by contexts of uncertainty, systemic and cross-border risks, displacement of traditional centers and methods of socio-political decision-making, increased social inequalities, and, in general, by a fragmentation of the social fabric with effects, both in private spheres and in the public space, that does not leave unscathed the agency of public powers and the possibilities of revitalization of an extended citizenship.
This summary and merely evocative description of a state of crisis that has been prolonged for a long time aims to illustrate some of the circumstances that have contributed to the increasingly demanding and difficult articulation between the place, functions, and limits of Law, the agency of the State, and the fulfillment of Democracy. In this context, we call for contributions that address one or more of the perspectives indicated below as examples and fit into the general theme announced for this special issue of De Legibus.
Thematic Lines
Reconfigurations of the Rule of Law, exercise of power, and revitalization of citizenship:
▶ Legitimation of the exercise of power in contexts of social fragmentation
▶ Influence, lobbying, and corruption: recomposition of interests and democratic transparency
▶ Legal and political accountability of political office holders and the disposition of public trust
▶ Legal protection of the conditions for the fulfillment of the democratic regime and the constitutional stand for the protection of political regimes
▶ Electoral systems, representation, political party financing, and citizen trust
▶ New representativities, participation, and democratic deliberation
▶ Public policies, political decision-making, and legitimation through knowledge and participation: the setup of informed consensuses
▶ Erosion of the system of checks and balances: the role of courts and judicial legitimacy
▶ Law as a performative instrument: from the power of capital to autocratic legalism and the role of Law in the crisis of liberal democracy
▶ Ideologies, cultural wars, and socio-political polarization
▶ Authoritarian populisms and political extremisms: illiberal and post-liberal aspirations in the survival of the Rule of Law
▶ Education and knowledge production: role in the formation of democratic citizenship
▶ Civic participation and social movements: interactions with the legal-political system and traditional institutions
▶ Constitutional principles in focus: equality and non-discrimination in complex societies
Technology, information, and democracy:
▶ From information as a safeguard of democracy to the power of technologies based on information
▶ Personal data protection and risks to the upholding of fundamental rights
▶ Equality in access to essential goods and services in the context of contemporary multicultural societies
▶ Artificial intelligence, big tech, and regulatory challenges
▶ Technological oligarchies and democratic ruptures: the conflicting relationships between public and private powers
▶ Media, (dis)information, knowledge, decision, and power: dissolution and reconfiguration of institutional checks and balances
Capitalism, economy, and democracy:
▶ Financing of the welfare state and tax models
▶ Crisis of democratic capitalism and individual freedoms
▶ Financial markets, neoliberal economics and democratic institutions
▶ Inequalities, structures of economic-political power, and social change
▶ Democratic vulnerabilities in dominant economic systems
Global challenges and systemic risks – legal regulation in contexts of radical uncertainty:
▶ Geopolitical impacts of international conflicts: global instability and insecurity
▶ Migration flows and human rights
▶ Socio-legal and political challenges of energy transition and climate crisis: decarbonization and sustainability
▶ Democracy and global environmental management
▶ The energy costs of digital transition and artificial intelligence
- Submission deadline: until February 28, 2025
- Review period: until April 30, 2025
- Guidelines
5.1. Submitted papers must comply with the rules of the Style Guide of De Legibus Law Review (https://revistas.ulusofona.pt/index.php/delegibus/about/submissions#authorGuidelines), under penalty of being summarily rejected. The evaluation will be done through a double-blind peer review system, according to the usual guidelines in the journal.
5.2. For this purpose, interested parties may use the Word file template available on the same link indicated above (5.1).
5.3. The theme of the Dossier should be specified on the paper’s presentation page.
5.4. Papers will be accepted in the following languages: Portuguese, Spanish, French, or English.
5.5. Files should be submitted by registering on the form available at https://revistas.ulusofona.pt/index.php/delegibus/about/submissions or sent to de.legibus@ulusofona.pt , in this case indicating in the email subject the Dossier to which it refers.
5.6. The editorial team may reassign to the special issue articles already submitted or in queue for publication, prior to the opening of this Call, that deal with a theme relevant to the Dossier.
