DIREITO EM PRETUGUÊS (Law in Black Portuguese)

Coordinator: Prof. Thula Rafaela de Oliveira Pires Research Group on Afro-Latin American and Afrodiasporic Studies, affiliated with the PPGD PUC-Rio and NIREMA PUC-Rio (Interdisciplinary Center for Reflection and Memory on Afro-descendants at PUC-Rio).

LABORATÓRIO DO SUPREMO (Supreme Court Lab)

Coordinator: Prof. Ana Luiza Saramago Stern A study and research group, affiliated with the Center for Constitutional Studies of the PUC-Rio Law Department, dedicated to studying the Supreme Federal Court, including its composition and history, theoretical reflection on the role of constitutional jurisdiction and its relationship with the Democratic Rule of Law, and the monitoring of important decisions.

PLEB (RESEARCH ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IN BRAZIL)

Coordinator: Prof. Fábio Carvalho Leite A research group of the Center for Constitutional Studies at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), formed by academics in the field of Law, which aims to develop research and scientific works on the most diverse topics related to freedom of expression and its limits.

SPINOZA & PHILOSOPHY

Coordinators: Prof. Francisco de Guimaraens and Prof. Mauricio de Albuquerque Rocha This research group aims to study and examine what has been called a historical and philosophical "anomaly": the philosophy of B. de Spinoza (1632-1677). Our goal with this project is to extract the consequences of the historical (within political, ethical, and legal thought) and contemporary effects of Spinoza's philosophy. The emphasis will therefore be on anthropology (understood as the theoretical domain of cognitive, affective, and collective individuation); on the conception of Law (as power, institutions, and practices); on the problem of freedom and the materialization of rights (based on the rejection of free will and finalism); and on the reconsideration of the historical, political, social, and philosophical conditions in which the constitutive values of what we recognize as modernity (Anglo-European, but also peripheral) were formed.

TERRAS E LUTAS (Lands and Struggles)

Coordinator: Prof. Adriano Pilatti A Research and Extension Group. Terras e Lutas is composed of professors and students from undergraduate and graduate Law programs. Its objective is to connect research and extension through the legal monitoring of situations involving the threat, violation, or denial of fundamental rights in urban and agrarian contexts.

RESEARCH GROUP ON CRITICAL STUDIES IN LAW, NATURE, AND SOCIETY

Coordinator: Prof. Virginia Totti Guimarães The Group discusses the unequal distribution of the perverse effects of the Brazilian development model, with a notable focus on analyses of the use of Law to deepen situations of environmental injustice and racism, in both rural and urban areas. It analyzes environmental and urban conflicts, as well as the management of legal norms, with the aim of uncovering the effects produced by differentiated interpretations of legislation. It starts from socio-territorial, gender, and racial inequalities to analyze legal norms, their method of creation, application, and interpretation, as well as their implications for deepening social vulnerabilities.