The “Concordia, Law and Society” Research Group formally began its activities in January 2025, at the initiative of Professor Tomás de Domingo Pérez, who in 2010 began a line of research focused on transitional justice and, more particularly, on the role played by truth and historical memory within it. The main outcome of this research was the publication of the book Justicia transicional, memoria histórica y crisis nacional (Cizur Menor, Cuadernos Civitas/Aranzadi, 2012), which argues that the fundamental objective of processes of political transition should be the restoration of concordia.

More than a decade later, the growing political polarisation observed both in Spain and in other Western countries highlights the need to deepen the study of concordia. This requires a solid theoretical framework concerning the relationship between politics, morality and law, which can provide an adequate understanding of its meaning and enable an analysis of the role it may play as a guiding principle for political and legal practice. In contrast to contemporary currents in political philosophy inspired by Kantian ethical constructivism, such as those represented by Habermas and Rawls, our research seeks to reaffirm the importance of recovering the classical concept of concordia and of approaching the pursuit of the common good through an understanding of the history and prevailing social norms and practices of each political community.

We consider the relevance of concordia to extend across all the layers that make up the social structure. This perspective accounts for the interdisciplinary nature of the Group. Its core consists of scholars from the field of Philosophy of Law, but it also involves researchers from other legal disciplines, as well as from the fields of Journalism and Political Science. In this way, the Group seeks to approach the phenomenon of concordia from a broad perspective, capable of integrating its philosophical, legal, political and social dimensions.