The Path to a Circular Economy: International Law, the European Union Model and the Brazilian Transition

Objective

CIRCLEINLAW addresses two pressing global priorities: achieving a just green transition and advancing sustainable peace through structural conflict prevention and long-term peacebuilding. The project examines how international law can promote the transition to circular economy (CE) and the intersection between international law, CE transition and peace and conflict studies. While decoupling resource use from economic growth is an increasingly urgent issue, the application of CE principles to peace and conflict remain largely unexplored. Despite growing interest, existing literature on the CE is fragmented, predominantly sector-specific and rarely including Global South perspectives. CIRCLEINLAW aims to address these issues by pursuing 3 interconnected research objectives: RO1) analysing international and regional legal frameworks that support CE, with comparative focus on EU and Brazil; RO2) conceptualising the CE within peace studies and evaluating its potential to contribute to conflict prevention and peacebuilding; RO3) integrating the gendered dimensions of the CE and determining the impact on sustainable peace. The project includes a 12-month outgoing phase at the Catholic University of Pernambuco (Brazil) and a 12-month returning phase at the University of Pisa (Italy). This plan enables the researcher to conduct comparative analysis, assess how the transition to CE takes place in different contexts and explore the external impact of the EU model. It allows Global South perspectives to be integrated into the research on peace. The return phase will further engage with peace and gender studies. The fellowship includes targeted training activities and short research visits at leading institutions (Instituto Brasileiro de Economia Circular, Peace Research Institute Oslo). By the end of the project, the researcher is expected to have reached academic autonomy and established a reputation as an emerging expert in international law, sustainability and peace.