One of the main challenges facing open and inclusive societies such as Spain is to strengthen the level of protection afforded to rights in a context threatened by political, social and economic circumstances that may hinder their development. The new realities and opportunities that have emerged at the beginning of the 21st century mean that both the instruments for protecting rights and their legal foundations must be continually updated. The demands and needs to which rights are attributed today are not the same as those that emerged over the previous two centuries. It is therefore necessary to deepen the foundations and conceptual development of new rights or new dimensions of traditional rights. In a context shaped by political conflict, economic crises, and the resurgence of authoritarian positions opposed to a culture of rights, efforts to constitutionalize new rights and new dimensions of rights must be accompanied by a theoretical framework capable of properly grounding and conceptualizing these demands. Only in this way can they enter the political agenda and shape the activities of the institutions and public authorities responsible for safeguarding rights.

The project is carried out primarily along two lines of research. The first, which is mainly theoretical, focuses on establishing the foundations and developing the concepts of these new rights and of specific applications or new dimensions of traditional rights. The second is applied research and involves analysing these rights and their specific legislative and constitutional implementation in each case. The project therefore aims to make a rigorous, well-grounded theoretical contribution to the study of these emerging rights—and of new dimensions of traditional rights—that can inform their implementation in laws and institutions. In addition to academic debate within the scientific community, it is therefore necessary to establish channels of communication and influence with the institutions and political and social actors concerned, addressing the foundations, concepts, general characteristics and configuration of these emerging or developing rights, while distinguishing between those that can be classified as new rights and those that represent specific applications or new aspects of already established rights.