The IILS research programs are centered in hot legal issues that are crucial in our societies in the 21st century. Actually we are working mainly in four fields : Consolidating the Rule of Law, Law and Society in the Era of Algorithms, A Legal Approach to the War on Drugs and The rising of Animal Law.
Consolidating the Rule of Law
The program deals with enhancing European young people’s awareness of how the Rule of Law is being jeopardized in the European Union by rising populisms and the threat of world powerful dictatorial regimes that pretend their authoritarian systems are most effective to face globalization. Remembering the essential features of the Rule of Law and how it works is the only way to maintain this basic principle of European integration in a world where democracy is in danger.
Law and Society in the Era of Algorithms
So far Law has been a Human affair. Essentially a common fiction that has allowed us to stay together into powerful collectives. But technological revolution has changed all that and in the 21st Century the greatest danger sapiens faces is that the technical instruments that have endowed us with supremacy have reached such a point of perfection that they could spin out of control, backfire on us, their creators, and end up enslaving us. What are the legal consequences of the development of AI, robots, cíborgs and Human enhancement. Are we Sapiens bound to disappear as it was the case of Neanderthals? Can Law prevent this to happen?
A Legal Approach to the War on Drugs
Today «drugs» are a taboo. For a large part of public opinion it is one of the most malefic plagues of Humanity. And this is why, simply put, a large majority considers they should be banned and fiercely prosecuted. But this extremely negative vision of drugs is relatively recent. For most part of human history using drugs was not a big deal. 100 years ago drugs were not demonized or criminalized, you could buy them freely in pharmacies or drugstores, and there was no intoxication and no overdose’s deaths. Because there was no adulteration of psychoactive substances. The worst part of it is that War on drugs has been useless. Billions of our taxes have been spent in this at least incompetent war, that not only has not wiped out drugs, but, on the contrary, has increased its consumption, provoking amazing individual pain and social unrest. From a Legal perspective the War on drugs is threatening our cherished Rule of Law, one of the main pillars of our Western Liberal Democracies. On which constitutional bases the State can restrict our liberty to take drugs? On what ground the Government can decide freely which drugs are legal and which aren’t?
The rising of Animal Law
Today many consider humans and animals two different, separate and distinct categories of living beings. As a general rule, humans consider animals inferior to them, and consider their subjugation normal, natural and ethical. This prevailing belief is, as is to be expected, clearly reflected in the law. There was a time, however, when these lines were not clearly drawn, if they existed at all. Now there is a growing feeling towards protecting animals from cruelty, on the bases that they are not objects but sentient beings. The principle of equal consideration means more and more than animals, like Humans should be protected by law as full legal subjects.