Professor Leopoldo García Ruiz, member of our research team, Professor of Philosophy of Law, and Dean of the Faculty of Law, Business and Political Sciences at CEU Cardenal Herrera University, undertook an academic stay during April featuring an intensive institutional and scholarly agenda across several universities in Argentina and Chile. The purpose of this visit was to strengthen the international profile of the Faculty and to consolidate future avenues for academic and research collaboration. During his stay, Professor García Ruiz also presented several research projects developed within the research group focused on the crisis of democracy and the rule of law in the European Union.
The academic visit began at Universidad Austral, where he served as a visiting professor from 13 to 17 April. During his time there, he delivered a number of lectures and seminars for students enrolled in Law, Political Science, and International Relations programmes, while also participating in research seminars with members of the Faculty of Law.
Among the activities carried out during the visit was a session for first-year Theory of Law students at the Pilar campus, as well as a research seminar organised by Professor Juan Bautista Etcheverry at the university’s main campus in Buenos Aires. In addition, at the invitation of Professor Fernando Toller, Professor García Ruiz delivered a lecture within the Human Rights course for second-year Law students.
As Dean of our Faculty, Professor García Ruiz also held an institutional meeting with Professor Gabriel M. Astarloa, Dean of the Faculty of Law at Universidad Austral, during which they discussed potential lines of cooperation between the two institutions in the near future. Beyond his activities at Universidad Austral, Professor García Ruiz also visited University of Buenos Aires and Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina, where he exchanged academic perspectives with faculty members and researchers and learned about various teaching and research initiatives developed within their respective law schools.
Professor García Ruiz subsequently continued his academic agenda in Chile, participating in several activities organised by the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. Invited by the Department of Law and Technology of the UC Faculty of Law, he delivered a lecture on the complex balance between security and freedom in the age of emerging technologies, in an event coordinated by Professor Raúl Madrid. In his lecture, he reflected on how the gradual predominance of security over liberty in contemporary states is increasingly being reinforced through digital technological developments that are eroding the protection of citizens’ fundamental rights.
He also conducted a chair seminar devoted to exploring the tension between combating disinformation and safeguarding freedom of expression, with particular emphasis on the European Union and the period extending from the COVID-19 pandemic to the present day.
The academic stay also provided an opportunity to meet with professors and researchers from several Chilean universities, including Universidad de Los Andes, thereby strengthening the international academic ties of both the research team and the Faculty, particularly in relation to the group’s core field of study: the crisis of the rule of law.
These activities further consolidate the international presence of both our research team and the Faculty of Law, Business and Political Sciences, while opening new opportunities for scientific cooperation, academic mobility, and joint research initiatives with leading Ibero-American universities.
