Research projects

• Funding body: Ajuts a l’activitat de recerca del personal docent i investigador de la Universitat Ramon Llull.
• Reference: 2026-URL-Proj-076
• Period: 1 January 2026 – 31 December 2026
• Principal Investigator: Núria Ginés Castellet

This project examines the main legal challenges arising from the use of succession agreements as instruments for succession planning in family businesses. The research focuses on the relationship between succession agreements, family protocols, and the articles of association of family-owned companies, as well as their integration within Catalan civil law. Through doctrinal, case-law, and comparative analysis of other European legal systems, the project aims to contribute to more effective planning for the transfer of ownership and control in family businesses, supporting smoother and more secure generational transitions.

• Funding body: Ajuts a l’activitat de recerca del personal docent i investigador de la Universitat Ramon Llull.
• Reference: 2025-URL-Proj-052
• Period: 1 January 2025 – 31 December 2025
• Principal Investigator: Maria Teresa Duplá 

This project examines the main legal and social challenges affecting generational succession in family businesses. The research explores the impact of developments in family and succession law, the emergence of new family structures, the geographical mobility of business-owning families, and recent legislative reforms affecting estate and wealth planning. Its objective is to generate knowledge that contributes to the design of more effective succession strategies and helps ensure the long-term continuity of family businesses in an increasingly complex and evolving environment.

• Funding body: Ajuts a l’activitat de recerca del personal docent i investigador de la Universitat Ramon Llull. 
• Reference: 2024-URL-Proj-066
• Period: 1 June 2024 – 31 December 2024 
• Principal Investigator: Maria Teresa Duplá 

This project examines family-related risks (family risk) affecting family businesses in the context of legislative changes and evolving family structures. The research focuses on identifying and analysing the factors that may influence the continuity, governance, and sustainability of family businesses, with particular attention to developments in family and succession law, the evolution of regional civil law systems, the increasing diversity and complexity of family structures, and recent legislative reforms in the field of personal law. The project aims to enhance understanding of family-related risks within the corporate compliance framework and to provide tools that support more effective family business management.

• Funding body: Proyecto Aristos Campus Mundus 
• Period: 1 June 2022 – 31 May 2023
• Principal Investigators: María Teresa Duplá Marín, Núria Ginés Castellet, Silvia Romboli

Aquest projecte va tenir un caràcter multidisciplinari, combinant recerca bàsica i aplicada, i es va emmarcar en l’àrea d’especialització FA1 de la convocatòria. Es va desenvolupar un estudi original i actual sobre els reptes jurídics i socials derivats del nou model de discapacitat adoptat a Espanya mitjançant la Llei 8/2021, de 2 de juny. Amb aquesta finalitat, es va constituir un equip format per sis grups de recerca de les tres universitats espanyoles de l’ACM, amb la participació també d’investigadors d’universitats nord-americanes. L’objectiu principal del projecte va ser l’elaboració d’una obra col·lectiva monogràfica sobre el tema central de la recerca, així com la publicació conjunta d’articles en revistes científiques d’impacte. Igualment, es van organitzar trobades científiques obertes per reflexionar sobre aquesta qüestió. De manera complementària, es van preparar propostes per a convocatòries competitives vinculades a aquesta temàtica de recerca.

• Funding body: Ayudas a Proyectos de Investigación Aristos Campus Mundus 2021
• Reference: ACM2021_03
• Period: May 2021 – April 2022
• Principal Investigator: Teresa Duplá
• Equipo investigador: Silvia Rómboli

It is a basic and multidisciplinary research project framed in the FA1 area of specialization, with which we intend to carry out an original study on the main legal challenges, derived from effects and conflicts, of the current family in the framework of an inclusive society. For this, a research team has been created between four research groups from the Spanish ACM universities, and it is planned to contact and work throughout the project on the possibility of incorporating researchers from one of the partner universities in the USA.

The main objective of the project based on the aforementioned axes is the joint publication of articles in scientific journals of impact, as well as the preparation of a monographic work on the subject; secondarily if the opportunity arises, the preparation and presentation of a proposal related to the main theme to national or international competitive calls.

• Funding body: Ayudas a Proyectos de Investigación Aristos Campus Mundus 2020
• Reference: ACM2020_15
• Period: August 2020 – October 2021
• Principal Investigator: Teresa Duplá
• Research Team: Silvia Rómboli and David Velázquez

The main focus of this research project is the family, presented in the context of a current inclusive society. Our goal is to identify and develop a better understanding of current problems and future challenges for legal and social cohesion brought about by modern familial and societal advances.

The research starts from a selection of challenges faced by the current family from different areas of law: a) challenges in the private legal field (new parent-child relationships derived from gestation by surrogacy; reformulation of kinship; regional (in)-equalities of new family models); b) challenges in the public legal sphere (aggravating, mitigating and kinship; the right of correction of children; acquittal excuse and defences in paternal responsibility; fundamental rights and family).

Our interest is driven by the need to update the legal system in make it more adaptable to the new familial situations and their consequences. Research will be multidisciplinary and carried out in partnership with Deusto and Comenius universities.

• Funding body: Ayudas a Proyectos de Investigación Aristos Campus Mundus 2018
• Reference: ACM2018_12
• Period: May 2018 – August 2019
• Principal Investigator: Teresa Duplá
• Research Team: David Velázquez and Silvia Rómboli

The focus of the research presented here is the figure of bullying, understood generically as harassing, abusive, or intimidating behaviour, regardless of the place or circumstances in which it occurs. The necessary starting point for the study requires experts in the field of social psychology to specify and describe in detail the types of behaviour covered by the figure under study, and for this, we have the participation of expert researchers from the Mental Health Institute.

From the description of the characteristics of bullying, the research continues with an in-depth analysis of the current legal treatment of this figure/behaviour in various areas of law. The starting point is the current normative dispersion, the lack of an overall analysis of the matter, and the need for consistency within the legal system. The aim is to confirm the following starting hypothesis: we are faced with a figure/behaviour that is already contemplated and regulated in our legal system, although the term bullying is not directly used. In view of this, the main objective is to identify and develop, from different areas of law, the legal regulation of bullying, for which we have experts from three ACM universities, as well as experts from other collaborating universities. Given the growing interest in bullying, we thought it would be worthwhile publishing the research results with three days of presentation in the three participating universities and issuing a monograph on the topic.