ICON•S Interest Group on Emerging Rights
About
The advancement of modern, open, and inclusive societies requires academics to deepen their understanding of the legal foundations and conceptual frameworks of new rights or expanded dimensions of traditional rights. In a context shaped by cultural, political, economic, environmental, and armed conflict factors, efforts to integrate new rights and expand existing ones within constitutional and international frameworks must be supported by a theory that adequately grounds and conceptualizes these demands.
This Interest Group focuses on two main lines of research. The first is primarily theoretical, involving the establishment of foundations and the conceptualization of these new rights, as well as exploring new dimensions of traditional rights. The second revolves around applied research, which involves analyzing these concepts and their specific development in each constitutional, supranational, and international context.
Examples of these issues include the constitutional and legislative frameworks necessary to respond to demands and claims formulated in terms of rights; emerging or evolving rights related to citizen participation in public affairs; rights linked to spaces for the consolidation of human identity and dignity; expectations regarding the transformation and protection of rights in light of new economic, technological, social, and environmental realities; and the incorporation of a human rights, gender, and intersectionality perspective into the regulatory system and public policies. There is also an interest in exploring the limits of this strategy of turning agents into rights-holders to ensure legitimate demands for justice. The core issue is to facilitate the delineation of these limits.
Members
Upcoming events
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ICON•S 2026 Annual Conference titled “Reimagining Public Law for a Fractured World: Technology, Identity & Truth”, to be held from June 29 to July 1, 2026, hosted by UCD Law School (Dublin, Ireland).
We will have the in-person session of the Interest Group on Emerging Rights (IGER) at the annual conference of the ICON•S association. The panel will take place on Monday, June 29 at 9:45 AM.
09:45 - IGER Panel: The new rights panel will consist of the following presentations:
- Gonzalo Ramírez Cleves. Universidad Externado de Colombia and IGER convenor: "Right to a good future".
- Sofia Reca. Universität Münster: "Protection of democracy and gender perspective in the climate emergency".
- Pietro Sferrazza. Instituto de Derechos Humanos, Universidad de Chile: "Right to memory".
- Anil Güven Yüksel. Universitat de Barcelona: "Political rights of the migrant population".
We encourage all those who are going to participate in the conference to attend. It will be a pleasure to have you with us at the session and to have you join future IGER activities. -
ICON•S 2025 Annual Conference titled “At the Crossroads of Public Law: Equality, Climate Emergency, and Democracy in the Digital Age”. July 28-30, 2025, organized by the University of Brasília (UnB) and co-organized by the Center for Comparative Constitutional Studies (CECC) and Constituições: Center for Constitutionalism and Comparativism.
13:45 - 15:15 Monday, July 28, 2025 - The IGER panel at the Annual Conference in Madrid will feature four presentations by:
- Magdalena Correa. Universidad del Externado (Colombia): "Emerging rights: What are they for?".
- Juan A. Cruz Parcero. Instituto de Investigaciones Filosóficas, UNAM (Mexico): "Human Rights and Neoliberalism".
- André Rufino do Vale. Instituto Brasileiro de Ensino, Desenvolvimento e Pesquisa – IDP Brasília: "Mutations in the rights to information and data protection: new theoretical challenges in the emergence of computer networks".
- Rubén García Higuera. Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales (Spain): "Internet Access as a Human Right: Justifications, Obligations, and Regulation". -
ICON•S 2024 Annual Conference on “The Future of Public Law: Resilience, Sustainability, and Artificial Intelligence”. Madrid, Spain, organized by the IE University Law School from July 8 to 10, 2024.
14:00 - 15:30 Wednesday, July 10, 2024 - The IGER session at the Annual Conference in Madrid will feature three presentations by:
- Colleen Sheppard, F.R. Scott Chair in Public and Constitutional Law at McGill University (Canada);
- Marla Elósegui, Professor of Philosophy of Law at the University of Zaragoza (Spain) and Judge at the European Court of Human Rights;
- Andrew B. Spalding, Jennifer and Samuel Tarry Research Fellow and Professor of Law at the University of Richmond (USA). -
ICON•S 2023 Annual Conference on "Islands and Oceans: Public Law in a Plural World". Wellington, New Zealand (July 3-5), organized by Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington. IGER inaugural meeting.
Past events
Contact
If you have any questions, comments, or inquiries, please feel free to contact us using the form below. Additionally, if you wish to stay up to date on upcoming IGER events, projects, and activities, you can subscribe to our mailing list by checking the corresponding box. We look forward to hearing from you!
