Gemma Lligadas González

Institution: Center for Human Rights Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU CHREN)

Period of stay: 22/09/2025 - 15/12/2025

Contact: gemma.lligadas@fau.de

https://www.humanrights.fau.de/person/dr-gemma-lligadas-gonzalez/

Profile: 

Dr Lligadas González is an interdisciplinary scholar specializing in the legal structure of global governance and the global legal order emerging at the intersection of national, transnational, and international law. She has a particular interest in exploring the transformative dynamics and structural character of the global legal order, understood as a multifaceted legal and political system. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the CHREN-FAU, and she has previously been a visiting scholar at the Faculty of Law of the University of Hamburg (in the field of European and International Law), a lecturer in law at the Universitat Ramón Llull and a Global Governance Fellow at the Institut de Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals. She Gemma holds a Bachelor's degree in Law and a Master's degree in International Law from the Universitat Ramón Llull, a joint Master's degree in Legal Research from the Universidad Pontificia de Comillas, the Universidad de Deusto, and the Universitat Ramón Llull, and a PhD in International Relations from the University of Oxford.

Research Area:

International Legal Theory, International Public Law, Human Rights, Global Governance, Great Power Competition.

Research Title:

Global Legal Trends in the Context of Great Power Competition and Ideational Change.

Research Outline:

As established in the introductory lines of Klabbers’ seminal book on international law, “the existence of international relations, of whatever kind, entails the existence of international law” and, as a result, the international legal system “cannot be portrayed as politically innocent”. In fact, far from this assumption of neutrality, the most qualified legal theorists eloquently argue that international law is born from the political struggle of states in the international arena (Koskenniemi) and, as a result, international law mirrors the concomitant international political environment (Roberts). The ongoing competition for great power and the changes in the international paradigm have brought the political underpinnings of international law back into the spotlight of the legal debate. Building on the existing legal theory about the topic, my research draws from IR theories on the polarity of the international system, hegemonic stability, and normative change to shed light on the nascent international legal trends resulting from great power competition. My research contributes to the critical legal literature on international custom, international fragmentation and judicial coordination while fostering the dialogical relationship between the IL and IR scholarships.

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