THE INTERNATIONAL CHAIR INNOCENT III
The Pontifical Lateran University of Rome,
through the Utriusque Iuris Institute, and the Catholic University of
Murcia encouraged the creation of an international chair aimed at strengthening
the research initiatives of their members in the areas of common interest,
especially the areas dedicated to promoting, collaborating, fostering and
disseminating matters concerning the History of Law, Ius Commune and
Canon Law. The founding act of the chair was signed on 21 November 2014.
Its patron, Pope Innocent, is a Pope who was
able to respond to the challenges of a changing world, to an uncertain era,
that required a reform anchored in the Doctrine and in the Gospel. The Pope
considered a deep reform in every sense, so that the Church could celebrate
what it believed in; both in the altar and beyond the limits of the temple.
It is no recklessness to connect those problems
to the current reality. The need to occupy all the spaces of the contemporary
life and culture requires an ecclesial presence, a strong and dynamic one, able
to support the building that Saint Francis of Assisi helped preserving.
The great challenges of the contemporary world
are not foreign to the Church's concerns. Now, like then, the social changes,
the voices calling for reforms, the thirst of salvation facing empty words,
invite us to make a serious and scientific study that allows to understand what
we were and what we can’t renounce to. The International Chair III was created
exactly for this reason, in order to give an opportunity so that the reflection
about the past could help us shedding a light on the present and clearing up
the future. We must understand that, for the Christians, but also for the man
of every era, the experience of history constituted and continues to constitute
a great challenge.
Ever since its birth, one of the aims was to
establish a solid structure that allows to create the basis for the
best-possible scientific research. For this reason, the most renowned
researchers of the field were invited to safeguard the quality and to
participate in the activities of the Chair. In this regard, we have more than
200 renowned researchers, from 120 universities and investigation centres from
all over the world, who are regularly collaborating with the Chair.