Centre on Law & Social Transformation (LawTransform)

Established in 2014 through a collaboration between the Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI) and the University of Bergen (UiB) and co-owned by CMI and the UiB Faculty of the Social Sciences and Faculty of Law, LawTransform connects researchers from Bergen and institutions worldwide across disciplines including law, political science, anthropology, economics, philosophy and psychology.

Through interdisciplinary, international research projects, LawTransform examines the relationship between law, power, and social change across different global contexts. The Centre combines academic research with teaching and public engagement through seminars, and conferences.

LawTransforms’s work addresses contemporary challenges such as autocratization and democratic resistance indigenous rights, contestations over land and natural resources, gender quality, queer struggles and reproductive rights and health, migration, climate governance, child rights, and transitional justice, and with attention to how legal institutions operate in practice, how rights are mobilized politically and socially and the material, political and ideational effects. Special focus is on lawfare processes – long-term “wars” over highly contested issues such as climate, abortion, and LGBTIQ+ rights where actors on all sides use rights, law and courts as tool and arenas of struggle.

The third week of August, LawTransform hosts the annual Bergen Exchanges on Law & Social transformation bringing together leading scholars from across the world for a week of public lectures and deliberation. An integrated PhD course enables the students to benefit from engagement with cutting edge research. The Exchanges fosters dialogue between scholars, civil society actors, policymakers, and practitioners from different regions of the world – and the academic community in Bergen.

Throughout the year, LawTransform hosts visiting researchers, weekly meetings with the Student Group, and public events.