MoU

Portugal is a UN Member State since December 1955 and participates in all international organizations involved in peacebuilding and statebuilding processes. Besides, since 1974 Portugal made efforts to enrich Portuguese culture among the new emerging post-conflict nations from Portuguese speaking ex-regions. A process that culminated with the creation, in 1996, of the CPLP, whose main objectives are political-diplomatic integration among its member states, in particular to strengthen its presence on the international scene and cooperation in all fields, form political to social policies.

All these “historical moments” and specially its different regulatory regimes (from constitutional law to administrative law, from diplomatic law relationships to new international law order) have been studied and discussed in the University of Coimbra over its centuries of existence. Particularly in its Faculty of Law and in the recently re-established Institute for Legal Research, in whose library, we can find “living records” from real testimonies of peacebuilding, statebuilding and constitution-making of the last decades.
The g7+ “Goodbye Conflict Welcome Development” is a group of Countries affected by conflict and fragility officially formed in April 2010, in Dili. The g7+ Group became a relevant international player on matters of struggling to overcome conflict or crises and to move towards resilience and development, mainly by dialoguing with international institutions and donors as well as in a “fragile to fragile” cooperation strategy.
Therefore, this research project puts together the knowledge and the willingness of Coimbra’s law researchers with the practical knowledge and the experience of g7+ members, which fits perfect in Coimbra University’s “DNA”.

In May 2017, the g7+ Secretariat, the University of Coimbra and its Institute for Legal Research signed a Memorandum of Understanding to provide a vehicle for exploring arrangements for:

  • continue concrete efforts to establish collaboration in the areas of legal study and scholarship of the g7+ and its member countries with the aim of enhancing resilience and development in g7+ member countries.
  • a primary focus on legal study and scholarship as it pertains to enhancing resilience and development in g7+ member countries.
  • sharing and disseminating with and among the g7+ member countries legal study and scholarship focused on the continuing enhancement of targeted development and resilience of g7+ member countries;
  • potential collaboration around peacebuilding, statebuilding and rule of law (Inclusive Societies, Security, Justice, Economic Foundation, Revenue and Services), in the following areas:
    • Legal research and Technical Cooperation directed to enhancing the promotion in the g7+ member countries in several areas such as fragility and the implementation of the New Deal and its monitoring;
    • Legal academic capacity Building. This includes, but is not limited to, joint input to identifying and defining the academic needs of g7+ member countries in the field of peacebuilding and statebuilding;
    • Creation of a  legal Scholarship Programme to encourage study and scholarship of the g7+ and its member countries in the areas of peacebuilding, statebuilding and rule of law or any other subject that the Parties agree upon;
    • Creation an academic network within and among the g7+ member countries; and
    • Exploration of options for possible fund raising efforts to implement any projects that require funding.