Max Planck-USP Law Center Normativity Regimes for Societies in Transformation (MP-USP Law Center)

The University of São Paulo (USP) and the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory (mpilhlt), department “Historical Regimes of Normativity”, will establish the Max Planck - USP Law Center for Normativity Regimes for Societies in Transformation (MP-USP Law Center).

Located in São Paulo, Brazil and Frankfurt am Main, Germany, the Center aims to become a global hub for the observation and analysis of the transformation of law and other normativities by systematically including researchers from other Latin American countries, as well as from countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and beyond. Through research on three areas of vital importance for today’s world from the particular positionality in the Global South, the Center will produce innovative research results on a variety of normativity regimes. The Center will also consolidate a new method to analyze the transformation of normativity regimes from a truly global perspective. At the same time, it will be an important site for the training of early-stage career researchers from different world areas and thus help to build a global community of young legal scholars.

The cooperation between the two partners, and the location of the Center in Brazil, are decisive in reaching these goals. From the perspective of the two parties, the intended goals of the MP-USP Law Center, i.e. the research output of the Center, the intended co-theorization of the proposed methodological framework, or the envisioned training program for global legal scholars, could never be achieved by one partner alone. The reason is simple: After decades of asymmetries in legal knowledge production between the Global North and the Global South, legal studies need to open up for a variety of empirical experiences and theoretical traditions from the Global South. The place where this opening occurs is not neutral. Brazil, as one of the biggest countries in the Global South, and USP, being the highest ranked Latin American University, as well as USP Law rated as the top Law School in the region, means that there was only one conclusion as to where would be the ideal location for the Center. The Center will also closely cooperate with CUPL in China.

The Center will be producing results on three levels: (i) Research: Early-stage-career and senior researchers, as well as invited research fellows, will carry out research projects dedicated to the observation of the transformation of normativity regimes. They will concentrate on three fields: Global Socio-environmental Legal Studies, International Law, and Transnational Law; (ii) Training: The Center will develop and implement a training program for early-stage career researchers (Master students, PhD students, and PostDocs), which will include a monthly seminar for early-stage career researchers, special courses, and a biannual winter/summer school (2028, 2030); in addition, it will provide PostDoc researchers with the opportunity to teach at USP Law or at a cooperating partner institution in China (CUPL); (iii.) Method: As an overarching goal, and building on previous work of the partners, the Center will be a hub for the development of an innovative method for the observation of the transformation of normativity regimes in a global perspective. To achieve these goals, the Center will carry out a series of Core activities, including two innovative Labs (‘Global Normativity Regimes Lab’ and ‘Lab for Public Communication of Law’).

The Center will be led by two directors (Samuel Barbosa, USP; Thomas Duve, mpilhlt). The Center is planned to operate for a five-year period, starting in January 2027, running to December 2031. It might be continued for another five-year period (2032–2036). It will be funded in equal parts by the Max Planck Society (MPS) and USP/FAPESP.