Plenary Session III Law and Citizenship above the States: A World to be Constitutionalized

The notion of citizenship developed narrowly related to the democratization of national states, and it was formally recognized in a first period by documents drafted in the course of national political processes. Since the emergence of this notion, however, its discussion did involve people from many different countries, giving rise to a transnational intellectual process. In recent decades, an increasing number of international or regional mechanisms aiming at protecting human rights were set up, likely to favour individual action taking place in arenas that transcend national borders. Under such conditions, community oriented individual agency – which might be a definition of citizenship – could gain power beyond national settings, at a moment when large organizations already succeeded in establishing themselves as relevant players at that level. The discussion we would like to open is to what extent this is the case, what tensions it may generate, and what impact it is likely to have on actors and movements, forms of pressure and regulation, beyond and within the states.

Grande Auditório | ISCTE-IUL

Christopher Thornhill, University of Manchester

The citizen and the state - a paradoxical relation

David Whyte, University of Liverpool

Law, citizenship and the corporation

Vital Moreira, University of Coimbra Law School

Na linha da frente do constitucionalismo transnacional: o caso dos direitos humanos

Chair: Maria Eduarda Gonçalves, DINÂMIA-CET-IUL, ISCTE-IUL