Dissemination
The Constituições project was born with the central goal of revaluing the role of constitutions in citizen education. Without assuming a republican or communitarian perspective of imposing civic virtues or partial ethical values (HABERMAS, 2015), the project proposes to increasingly break the limits of academic discourse in order to reach a larger number of groups and individuals in civil society, with scientific responsibility and rigor.
In this way, its researchers will constantly seek to engage in public debate through the publication of posts, short articles, and other forms of activity on social media, blogs, websites, and newspapers, aiming to expand contact with significant numbers of citizens and academics from all over the world. The idea is to explore the prior experience of its researchers in publications on websites such as Jota, I-Connect Blog, and Verfassungsblog to allow the dissemination of knowledge produced in the Constituições project.
Knowledge
The Constituições project is guided by the goal of increasingly achieving verticalization of knowledge in the field of constitutional theory, constitutional law, and comparative constitutional law. This does not mean narrowing the capacity for dissemination. It is possible to reconcile scientific rigor and the possibility of access from all people to knowledge of their constitutional rights and institutions. This is a central point in the purpose of several constitutions that seek to correct inequality.
The Constituições project is directly linked to the research of excellence developed by the Graduate Program in Law of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) and the UFMG Law School. However, the project is founded, from the outset, on politics of academic institutional sharing.
Defense of constitutions
The objective of the project is to develop research aimed at diagnosing and proposing new forms of defense of constitutions. Within a perspective of respect for the rule of law, it should be sought to diagnose which comparative institutional experiments can offer transnational lessons in terms of the defense of constitutional democracy.
Constitutional culture
If the institutional aspect is fundamental in the revalorization of constitutions, it should be borne in mind that a broad process of linking individuals and groups with constitutional grammar is central to repositioning the value of constitutional democracy. The Constituições project will use sociological approaches that allow for the detection of failures in the relationships between people and institutions (DRINÓCZI, BIEN-KACALA, 2019). However, it is also essential to broaden the debate on the value of constitutions through processes of civic engagement. The academy has a central role in this field to prevent radical nationalist proposals from occupying the space for the development of a constitutional culture and the consolidation of context-sensitive constitutional identities (JACOBSOHN, 2010).
The project’s agency in this field is marked by the perception that working with constitutional culture is essential in societies with widespread inequality. The consolidation of such a culture goes through the recognition of the role of constitutionalism in transforming emerging peripheral societies (KLARE, 1998).
Database creation
The use of technological innovation tools can allow the creation of different databases that facilitate the research on Comparative Constitutional Law. Thus, projects aimed at building legislative, judicial, executive, and civil society databases will be implemented, always seeking to popularize and equalize access to knowledge.
Academic integration
The Constituições project, although based at UFMG, will seek full integration with Brazilian, foreign, and supranational institutions and groups focused on the study and dissemination of knowledge in the fields of Constitutional Theory, Constitutional Law, and Comparative Constitutional Law. Thus, already implemented links will be deepened, as is the case with the UnB Graduate Program in Law and the CECC – Center for Comparative Constitutional Studies. Partnerships will also be sought with Brazilian groups such as the CCONS – Center for Constitutional Studies and the ICON-S Chapter Brazil. Foreign projects are also on the horizon for future partnerships (for example, Constitutionnet), as well as supranational entities such as ICON-S and the International Association of Constitutional Law.
Institutional integration
The Constituições project seeks to develop a dialogue between academia and institutions. Thus, partnerships with associations of judges, prosecutors, and lawyers, as well as with courts, councils, legislative bodies, and executive bodies in general, in Brazil and abroad, will be part of the research projects conducted by Constituições.