Short Bio
Gemma Lligadas is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Centre for Human Rights Erlangen-Nürnberg, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. Previously, she was a Lecturer (Profesora Asociada) in Law and International Relations at Universitat Ramon Llull and a Global Governance Fellow at the Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals (IBEI). She also held visiting research appointments at the Faculty of Law of Universität Hamburg (Department of European and International Law) and the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge. She holds an LL.B. and an M.A. in International Law from Universitat Ramon Llull, a Joint Master’s Degree in Legal Research from Universidad Pontificia Comillas, Universidad de Deusto, and Universitat Ramon Llull, and a DPhil in International Relations from the University of Oxford. She was awarded the Oxford–Radcliffe Graduate Scholarship during her doctoral studies and received both the ESADE Foundation Academic Excellence Scholarship and the Academic Excellence Award during her earlier academic training. Gemma is an interdisciplinary scholar specializing in the legal structure of global governance and the evolving global legal order that emerges at the intersection of domestic, transnational, and international politics.
Gemma’s research examines the structural transformations of the global legal order at the intersection of international law, comparative constitutional law, and international relations. Her work explores how legal and political authority is constituted, contested, and reshaped across domestic, transnational, and international levels of governance. She studies the global reach of courts’ transformative powers, the role of inter-judicial coordination in shaping policymaking during global crises, and the implications of these processes for the protection of human rights and the rule of law. She also investigates the resilience of international law and human rights under conditions of structural rivalry and normative change.