For Universities, Research Centers, NGOs

Our activity develops at the intersection of legal practice, research and policy design, with a specific focus on cultural identity, governance of narratives and the international projection of territories and communities.

Starting from research experiences in city diplomacy, territorial reputation and cultural representation, we aim to cooperate with universities, research centers, NGOs and foundations interested in advancing research and practical initiatives addressing identity protection, governance challenges and the impact of public narratives on communities and territories.

Our objective is to contribute to projects capable of generating both academic outcomes and practical institutional impact.

Areas of Collaboration

Possible forms of collaboration include:

• joint research initiatives on cultural identity, governance and narrative construction
• development of policy recommendations and applied governance tools
• contribution to research projects combining legal, institutional and social perspectives
• cooperation in research dissemination, seminars and academic events
• participation in multidisciplinary research teams addressing territorial and identity-related challenges

Collaborations may concern both theoretical research and applied projects involving institutions and communities.

Approach and Working Method

Collaborative activities are developed through multidisciplinary cooperation, integrating legal analysis, governance perspectives and empirical research approaches.

Partnerships can be structured flexibly according to project needs, including remote collaboration, hybrid arrangements or on-site contributions, ensuring compatibility with institutional and research frameworks of partner organizations.

Special attention is paid to transparent cooperation models, shared authorship and mutual recognition of intellectual contributions.

Leonardi, Alessandro. (2021). Local Governments on the Global Stage – Territorial non state Actors, City Diplomacy and International Legal Order(s) - Ordine Internazionale e Diritti Umani, n. 2/2021, p. 400-421

Local governmental bodies as well as territorial public authorities at the sub-state level, as both political-administrative authorities and democratically elected bodies delegated to represent territorial civil communities, implement an autonomous system of trans-local foreign relations. Such a model, widely known among scholars in international relations as city diplomacy , has gradually established itself as a growing alternative to the classic model of intergovernmental international relations.

This study aims to offer some guidelines on this topic, moving from the observation of trans-local and foreign practices enacted by local governments in their network associative forms to the field of the human rights protection, at the same time analysing some legal perspectives potentially adaptable to them in order to define their nature, subjectivity, and reasonable means of legal guardianship that should be granted to them in international fora.

Far from providing answers, this study moreover intends to help stimulate the debate between jurists and public sector practitioners on the classification and subjectivity of substate governments in light of the current systems of international law, transnational law and international relations.