NOVA University Lisbon (NOVA) is a decentralised Higher Education Institution (HEI) that has its nine Schools scattered throughout the Great Lisbon Area. Research at NOVA has been thriving both qualitatively and quantitatively: NOVA currently hosts 39 Research and Development (R&D) Units, 23 of which represent partnerships with other national institutions, and 92% were considered units of excellence. This places NOVA in the top 3 of national universities with international recognition.
NOVA School of Law was founded in 1996. Its first undergraduate program was launched in 1997 as an ‘innovative hub’ with the objective of developing and innovating legal science.
NOVA School of Law cooperates with other NOVA schools actively, in order to enrich its syllabus with interdisciplinary elements, such as the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, the Information Management School and the School of Business and Economics. In addition, it has signed and currently applies a wide range of international exchange agreements in the context of the different European Programs as well as protocols of cooperation with non-European academic institutes.
NOVA School of Law offers nine master programs and three doctoral programs, including in innovative fields of legal research, such as ‘law and technology’ and ‘law and security.
The Faculty staff includes approximately 32 resident professors, 50 guest lecturers and researchers from different backgrounds in terms of scientific expertise, professional experience and origin. Moreover, the members of the Department are active members of several academic networks in Europe and around the world in the fields of their expertise, most notably the International Law Association, the European Law Institute.
The research activities of both the Faculty members and the doctoral students are being hosted by the research centre ‘CEDIS’ (Centre for Research & Development in Law and Society). The latter was founded in 2004, and has radically contributed to the widening of the research portfolio of NOVA School of Law through an innovative approach to legal research.
