About the centre

Centre on Law & Social Transformation – LawTransform – is a network of scholars, students and practitioners who share an interest in how law shapes societies, and the use of rights and courts as tools for social change.

LawTransform was established in 2014 as a collaboration between the Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI) and the University of Bergen (UiB). Fellows and affiliates come from numerous institutions in Bergen and globally, and are drawn from a broad range of academic fields, including law, political science, economics, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, medicine and psychology.

Through a number of interdisciplinary research projects, we explore how law and legal institutions function, and how legal strategies are used as political tools (lawfare) to advance goals such as children’s- and migrants’ rights, health, sustainable development, peace and gender equality – and develop new methods to study the effects.

Bergen hosts many researchers who work on lawfare, or the strategic use of law as a political tool. The last 15 years, researchers from CMI and different faculties and departments at the University of Bergen, have worked together on a number of projects exploring legal mobilization and the social and political role of courts and law and in the global South. The network has expanded to include researchers based in South Africa, Brazil, India, Mexico, and many other countries!

The day-to-day organisation of the centre is run by our interns and volunteers, and the core administrative team.