Presentation

The recently formed Centre for Research in European, Economic, Financial and Tax Law (Centre or CIDEEFF) is a research and development unit set up at the Faculty of Law, University of Lisbon (FDUL) with the cooperation of two institutes namely - the Institute for Economic, Financial and Tax Law (IDEFF, established 2003) and the European Institute (EI, established 1985) (collectively Institutes). This interdisciplinary alliance has united leading Portuguese researchers, in the field of law and economics, and laid the foundation for scientific and research oriented projects thereby presenting them with an opportunity to excel in a domain of increasing significance at national and international level.

CIDEEFF has been established to foster research on economic-legal challenges raised by the lack of democratic global governance and increasing asymmetry, the need to ensure the provision of global public goods and market failures, and the extent to which the European governance model, minus the pitfalls surrounding its recent performance, should be seen as an example for worldwide governance. Due to Portugal’s strategic geographical location and the outstanding academic research record of the Institutes, its integrated and associated members, CIDEEFF is in a privileged position to focus on New Paradigms between Law and Economics.

Located within the FDUL premises, the Centre consists of integrated members and research associates including from foreign institutions. In recent years, the ongoing effort of the Institutes to strengthen international relations and competitiveness has resulted in a gathering, in Portugal, of experienced and dedicated researchers. Several additional international researchers establish a greater degree of mobility by collaborating and participating in seminars, international conferences, publishing papers in journals and books.

Furthermore, to facilitate applied research as one of the main aims steering the activities of the Centre - professionals, from academic and business worlds, with established skills in the research field also continuously assist and impart their knowledge to the Centre.

The fundamental guiding principles of the Centre are:

• freedom, independence and objectivity of research, carried out by the researchers individually or collectively;
• responsibility of the researchers regarding the research methods and outcome;
• building among its members a sense of common scientific purpose where their work is also a tool to improve the society; and,
• sharing knowledge in a dialogue with different scientific disciplines and cultures. 

CIDEEFF’s strategic objectives can be summarized as follows:

• to contribute to the best-practice policy and legal solutions consistent with the rule-of-law that may influence decision-making powers both at an international (WTO, IMF, World Bank), regional (EU institutions and Member States) and national level; in Lusophone (Brazil, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique) and Latin-American countries;
• to continuously promote international research carried out by the Centre;
• to advance research networks with universities and academics of different backgrounds, in order to encourage debate from different a perspective (e.g. OECD and developing countries; EU and Lusophone countries);
• to promote publication of original working and policy papers submitted to peer-review at CIDEEFF’s website, by CIDEEFF’s integrated and associated members and PhD students;
• to promote and support projects, junior and senior research careers and PhD students;
•  to facilitate transfer of knowledge to the academic community, decision-makers and civil society.

In line with the above, the Centre has been organized in a single line of investigation and further sub-divided into four research groups. CIDEEFF’s primary research focus remain on The New Paradigms of the Relation between Law and Economics whereby it explores the multidisciplinary dimension of the major economic-legal and policy topics that will determine economic-legal global governance in the next decade.

Accordingly, the topic of research for the sub-groups is:

• Group 1 - Tax Governance: International Standards, Patriotism and Exiles;
• Group 2 - Globalization, Economic Integration and Development: European and Lusophone Perspectives;
• Group 3 - Market Failures in a Globalized Economy: Institutional Approaches;
• Group 4 - Crises, Public Policies, Fiscal Policy and the Euro. 

These groups by focusing the research on areas such as taxes, international trade, regulation, supervision and financial stability aim to bring to light the major economic-legal challenges and constraints to global governance and the tension between regional, national and international standards, developed and developing countries, BRICS, Lusophone countries, countries rich in natural resources and others.

CIDEEFF has an ambitious agenda of bringing together related fields of economic regional integration and the economies in an open and globalized world, the challenges that the lack of democratic world or regional governance have brought to a small economy (such as the Portugal) and the existing policy options for the period 2015-2020.