Researchers
Given international and the inter-disciplinary character of the Chair, it is open to any researcher who is committed to contribute in the development of knowledge in the field of housing and who wants to contribute to any of the projects that the Chair is working on.
Below we provide details on the researchers who belong to the Housing Research Group and that are working or who have worked in the Chair.
Dr. Héctor Simón Moreno
Director of the UNESCO Housing Chair
He is the author of more than 70 scientific articles and book chapters, as well as three books on real estate and mortgages (the latest on reverse mortgage, Tirant lo Blanch, 2018). He has taken part in more than 50 conferences and scientific events in several European countries. He has conducted research stays at various universities and research centers such as the University of Oxford, the University of Birmingham, the Association of German Mortgage Banks and the Center for Housing Law, Rights and Policy of the National University of Ireland, Galway (six months in 2018). He has been involved in several research projects on housing at a national and European level on tenancies, cross-border acquisition of land, collaborative economy and tokenisation, and he has been the main researcher in two projects on reverse mortgages (2015) and urban leases in Catalonia ( 2017). He is a member of the Leonardo Network of the BBVA Foundation, of the working group on acquisitive prescription on land of the Common Core of European Private Law and he is one of the coordinators of the Southern European Housing Working Group of the European Network for Housing Research (ENHR). His main research fields are property rights, contract law, humand rights, the right to housing and mortgages.
Dr. Núria Lambea Llop
Deputy Director of the UNESCO Housing Chair
She is an international Doctor in Laws (2020, cum laude and extraordinary doctorate award) and holds a MSc in Business and Contractual Law (2014, A with honours) and a Law Degree (2013), all by the University Rovira i Virgili (URV). She is the Deputy Director of the UNESCO Housing Chair at the University Rovira i Virgili (Spain), and co-director of the Postgraduate course on Housing Policies (Foundation URV). Also a private law lecturer in the Master’s Degree in Business and Contractual Law (URV), Postgraduate course on Real Estate Agents (FURV) and at the Degree of Law and at the Double degrees of Business Administration and Management and Law and Law and Labour Relations and Employment (URV).
Member of the research group of 12 national and international research projects, mainly on housing policies, affordable and social housing, housing management, housing tenures, collaborative housing and tourist dwellings. On the frame of her research, she has published 1 book, 17 research papers and book chapters and has participated or been invited in more than 40 conferences and workshops, both at an international and national level (12 different countries). She has undertaken three research stays at the TU Delft (the Netherlands, 2014), University of Birmingham (United Kingdom, 2017) and at the NUI Galway (Ireland, 2018).
Member of the writing team of scientific reports for different public bodies and contributed to the development of several municipal housing plans. She is the representative of the UNESCO Chair in the Tarragona Network for the Homeless, and in the Reus Municipal Housing Council; she also collaborates regularly with different media.
Orcid ID: 0000-0001-6925-3530
Prof. Dr. Sergio Nasarre Aznar
Founder and fist director of the UNESCO Housing Chair (2013-2021)
Prof. Dr. Sergio Nasarre-Aznar (Tarragona, Spain, 1974) is Full Professor of Civil Law at Rovira i Virgili University. He is European Doctor of Law and holds an M.Phil. in Land Economy from the University of Cambridge. For 15 years he was a deputy judge at the Court of Appeal of Tarragona (2004-2018). Founder and first director of the UNESCO Housing Chair (2013-2021). Since 2008 he has been a corresponding academic at the Royal Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation. He was awarded with the ICREA Award for Research Excellence 2016-2020 and 2024 has been acknowledged as distinguished Professor. Consultant in several international organizations such as the European Commission, FAO or Amnesty International, between 2018 and 2020 he was an advisor to the German Ministry of the Interior, Construction and the Community for the implementation of housing policies in Europe in its EU Presidency in 2020. In years 2020 and 2021, he was an advisor to the Prospective Project “Spain 2050” of the Presidency of the Government. He is the author of five books on housing, the mortgage market and tort law, the latest being “Los años de la crisis de la vivienda” (2020) and “La gran apuesta” (2021). He has coordinated nine more and is the author of 110 scientific papers in 12 countries, while delivering 300 invited speeches in other 27 countries. He has successfully supervised 12 doctoral thesis and has participated in the development of five laws related to housing. He is a principal investigator or has participated in 50 competitive research projects, leading 17 of them, such as in some of the European Commission and the European Parliament in the field of tenancies, evictions and homelessness, transnational acquisition of real estate, mortgage consumers and the collaborative economy.
Dr. Gemma Caballé Fabra
Is a researcher in the UNESCO Housing Chair. She is an international doctor in Laws and had a grant from the Catalan Government (Grant FI 2017) to undertake her PhD on new challenges of real estate agent’s profession in Spain. She has a Law Degree with honours (2014) and a MSc in Corporate and Contractual Law (2015), also with honours. She has done two research stays at University of Essex (UK, 2015) and at the Cambridge Center of Property Law of the University of Cambridge (UK, 2017). In 2016 she led a project funded by Banc Sabadell Foundation to study the legal regime of condohotels in Spain. Her main fields of reseach are real estate agent’s profession, “condohotels”, intermediate tenures and housing policies. She has been member of competitive projects such as housing tenures amendments (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad 2015-2017), on the principles guiding a new Urban Leases Act (CEJFE 2016-2017) and currently is member of the Reseach Group of a project on collaborative housing (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad 2018-2020).On the frame of her research, she has published several articles and book chapters and has participated in conferences and workshops both at an international and national level (Lisbon, Belfast, Tirana, Barcelona, Madrid, Zaragoza, Sevilla, Tarragona, Reus, Tortosa, Valls).Gemma is currently lecturing at the Advanced course for Real Estate Agents and Managing of Real Estate (URV Foundation) and at the Law Degree, at the Double Degree of Business Administration and Management and Law and at the Double degree of Law and Labour Relations and Employment.
Dr. María Paula Rodríguez Liévano
Has a Degree in Law from the University of Ibagué-Colombia (2010-2015), a master’s degree in Advanced Studies in Administration and Public Law from the URV (2016-2017), whose degree has been validated and recognized by the Colombian Ministry of Education as master’s degree in Public Law, and she is PhD in Law from the URV (2019-2023). Her doctoral thesis was on the operability of human rights in collaborative housing, especially in cohousing communities and its legal formula of housing co–operatives in cession of use. Her main research fields are human rights, collaborative housing, and housing co-operatives.
Dr. Blanca Deusdad Ayala
Received her Master and PhD degrees in Sociology from Barcelona University, Spain, in 1997 and 2002, respectively. She was Postdoctoral Fulbright Fellow (2004-05) at Boston University and Fellowship at Harvard University (2006 and 2008). She joined Rovira i Virgili University in 2009 and currently is Associate Professor at the Department of Anthropology, Philosophy and Social Work. She is also associated member at Boston University. Her research interests include social work and ICT, social services, ageing, ageing and housing, gender and education. She has participated in two European projects COST Action and in more than five R&D projects at the National level. She has published more than ten articles with impact. She has edited a Special Issue in a Journal ISI-JCR Journal of Social Service Research. She has contributions in numerous international conferences. She has also supervised a PhD with European mention. She was member of the management committee and steering committee of the project COST Action IS1102 Social services, welfare state and places and substitute member of COST Action 1402 and COST Action CA 15122 ROSEnet.
Dr. Philippa Hugues
Dr Philippa Hughes is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (MCSA) scholar at the UNESCO Housing Chair, Universitat Rovira i Virgili. Her research explores the development of collaborative housing tenures, with a focus on the UK and Spain. Her wider research interests cover the promotion of socially and environmentally sustainable housing. She has previously held research roles at the University of Liverpool, University of the West of England, and Shelter, the UK’s largest housing and homelessness charity. Her PhD awarded by the University of Sheffield in 2023 explored the growth of community-led housing in England.
Dr. Ángeles Galiana Saura
Is associate professor of philosophy of law at the Faculty of legal sciences of the University since 1997. She has participated in several regional, national and international research projects. She has published two monographs, has participated in several collective books, as well as has written articles in national and international journals in her main fields of research: theory of technical regulations and legislation, human rights, environment, immigration and social rights. She has been Deputy Dean at the Faculty of Legal Sciences at URV.
Dr. Carmen Gómez Buendía
Associate professor in Roman law. European Doctor in Law and an Extraordinary Doctorate Award 2011. Director of the Master’s Degree in Business and Contract Law of the URV since 2015. Currently she is directing 2 doctoral theses. Author of 1 monograph, 4 book chapters and 6 articles in indexed journals, among other smaller publications. She has participated in more than 25 international conferences presenting papers, among them the annual congress of the Société Internationale Fernand de Visscher pour l’Histoire des Droits de l’Antiquité. Research stays at the Universities LMU-München (Germany), Pavia, Federico II di Napoli (Italy) and Oxford (UK). Member of 9 research projects. She is main researcher of the Project DER2016-75518-P granted by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Regulae iuris on obligatory legal relations: textual history, interpretation, practice (2017/2019). Fields of research: Roman classic civil procedure, Foundations of European private law, Public Works in postclassical and Justinian Roman law, datio in solutum, and the protection of cultural immovable heritage.
Dr. Maria Font Mas
Associate Professor and head of the International Private Law area of Rovira i Virgili University since 2005. She obtained a European Doctorate of Law from Universitat de Barcelona. She has done research residencies at the Universities of Lyon, Turin, Nijmegen, Aberdeen, MGHill (Montreal) and the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law. Among the lines of research she is active in is the study of legal entity on an inter-regional and international level, as well as an analysis of European legislative policies on social Economic organizations, particularly as regards foundations and charitable trusts. In the sphere of international procedural law she is investigating the free circulation of extra-judicial public documents in the European Union in terms of their execution, notification, registration and authentification. She participates in international research projects at both the URV and Universitat de Barcelona on such subjects as: the registration of international property transactions and the application of European regulations on the part of Spanish courts. She is the head of the Legal Clinic for Business of the Master’s Degree in Corporate and Contract Law.
Dr. Diana Marin Consarnau
Associate professor of International Private Law in the URV since 2004. Diploma of Advanced Studies in the Department of International Law and Economics. Doctor of Law from the University of Barcelona. Her main research focuses on immigration law. Author of a monograph and several publications in scientific journals and collective works. She participates in several competitive research projects. She has been a visiting researcher at the Dutch University of Nijmegen, the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law and at the King’s College London.
Dr. Lluc Font Pomarol
Is a postdoctoral researcher at the Science and Engineering of Emerging Systems (SeesLab), Universitat Rovira i Virgili. He works under the direction of Prof. Roger Guimerà (SeesLab) and Prof. Sergio Nasarre (Càtedra UNESCO d’Habitatge). She has a project grant at the UNESCO Housing Chair. He graduated in Physics at the Universitat de Barcelona (2017) and obtained a master in Modelling for Science and Engineering at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (2018). His research focuses on the analysis of data obtained from judicial sentences by studying and modelling complex networks representing the interactions between sentences and law.
Dr. Pablo Ruiz Osuna
Has a degree in Law (2016), with a master’s degree in Business and Contract Law (2018 – 2019) and a master’s degree in Legal Practice (2017-2019). Doctor in Laws cum laude. He is at the UNESCO Housing Chair of the Rovira and Virgili University. He was awarded a scholarship from the Martí i Franqués Research Program (2019PMF-PIPF-11) to undertake his doctoral thesis, which deals with intelligent robots as new citizens of the city of the future. His research will first develop a comprehensive regulation of robotics that guarantees their ethical use of AI in our society , and a liability framework for the damages caused by robots.
Andrés Labella Iglesias
He has a law degree and has been a lawyer since 1996. Property Registry Officer since 2001, with destination in the Martorell-2 Registry. He is carrying out his doctoral thesis in order to reveal the role of housing and buildings to ensure the right to independent life and in the community for people with disabilities, guaranteed in the New York Convention.
Marina Pueyo Villanueva
Graduated in Law in 2021 and obtained a Master’s in Legal Practice in 2023, both degrees from the Rovira i Virgili University. Is currently a predoctoral researcher at the UNESCO Chair on Housing at the same university, where she is developing her doctoral thesis under the supervision of Prof. Sergio Nasarre-Aznar. One of her main objectives is to deep property law in a new context: outer space.
Ashjan Alsane
Holding a Master’s degree in Law (LLM) from Mutah University in Jordan, I am an accomplished and dedicated legal academic with a strong professional background in both teaching and research. I have extensive experience in teaching law courses at the university level and have also served as a faculty and academic advisor. I bring a wealth of experience in quality accreditation and have been an active member of various committees dedicated to enhancing the academic standards of universities in both Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Currently, I am pursuing my doctoral research in civil law under the supervision of Professor Sergio Aznar at the UNESCO Housing Chair of Rovira i Virgili University.
Visiting and former scholars
The following scholars have carried out their research within the Housing Chair.
Francesc Garriga Colom
Degree in Law at the Central University of Barcelona. A lawyer in office, with office in Cambrils and Barcelona, began almost 30 years ago in different fields of law, especially in family law, to specialize in urban planning and construction law, collaborating with important law firms, both national and international, and combining the field of teaching and the passage through politics as Councilor for Urbanism and Public Works of the City Council of Cambrils.He was an International Observer in the Nicaragua elections in 2001, and was in El Salvador as an observer of the Community Funds Management.He has been an external consultant (lawyer of the area) of the financial institution La Caixa de Pensiones, as well as of different associations and unions. He was a Professor at the Master of Real Estate at the University of Barcelona, coordinated by Professor Gonzalo Bernardos, and Professor of the Training Institute of the Baix Camp in Reus, in the modules of Legal Administration.He taught at CIDEM, at the headquarters of Barcelona and Tarragona, in the technical training courses. He has also given different conferences and articles on the modifications of the Urban Leases Law and on the modifications of the Land Law, organized by the Group of Promoters and Constructors of the Province of Tarragona. He teaches at the Real Estate Agent and Property Management Course (URV Foundation).
Rui Feng
Has a bachelor´s degree in law from Beijing Normal University (2013-2017). She holds a Master’s Degree in Company and Business Law from the University of Barcelona (2017-2019). She is currently a pre-doctoral researcher at the UNESCO Housing Chair of Rovira i Virgili University. Her research focuses on intermediate tenures and the tangibility of the right to housing from the perspective of comparative law.
Dr. Silvana Canales Gutiérrez
Is a lawyer from the Universidad Santo Tomás-Colombia (2006-2012), Master in Business Law and Contracting of the URV, Master in Law from the National University of Colombia (2015-2018) and with postgraduate degree in commercial and business law from Santo Tomás University -Colombia (2013-2014). She obtained the distinction of meritorious by the Universidad Nacional de Colombia for her master thesis called “Bitcoin, the decentralized currency of voluntary course as a functional equivalent of the Colombian peso” (2018). She also got the extraordinary prize for graduate students of the URV for the best average of the master’s degree in that University (2019), as well as honors in her final master’s thesis on the clauses of submission to the competence forum and applicable law in the collaborative economy platforms referred to temporary housing (2018) . She is currently a pre-doctoral researcher and a fellow at the URV. His field of research focuses on the consumer as a subject of special protection in the European Union and Latin America within the framework of the Collaborative Economy referring to temporary accommodation from the perspective of Private International Law.
Dr. Alessandro Dinisi
Is researcher at the University of Pisa, Department of Law, Course of Legal Science, Private Law. He followed a co-tutorship project at the UNESCO Housing Chair of the University Rovira i Virgili. He has a Master Degree in Law (cum laude) at the University of Pisa. His PhD research aimed to investigate the institution of possession in the civil law, focusing on the housing exclusion cases protected at a European and international level (EU and ECHR). On the frame of his research, he has published some articles in national journals and participated in national and international conferences. During the PhD period, he has developed another research field on environmental law, participating in a Research Project about “Public and private instruments for regenerating brownfields”. Thanks to this, he has published some book chapters. His fields of research are property law, possession, right to housing, ECHR case-law and environmental private law.
Dr. Federico Adan Domènech
Professor of Procedural Law. Degree in Law from the University of Navarra and Doctor of Law from the Rovira i Virgili University. He has carried out different research stays at the Dipartamento di Scienze Giuridiche dell’Università degli studi di Bologna. Principal investigator of two competitive projects. Author of 5 monographs related to judicial protection of housing, author of more than 50 articles in specialized magazines, and co-author of collective works. Director of the master’s degree for access to the legal profession for three academic years. Former dean and head of law studies at the Faculty of Legal Sciences of the Rovira i Virgili University. Head of the Procedural Law Training Commission of the Tarragona Bar Association. Obtaining the Feixo Carreras and Ferrer Eguizabal Prize awarded by the Barcelona Bar Association.
Dr. Elisabet Cerrato Guri
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Dr. Dorit Garfunkel
Is a graduate in History and Law from the Tel Aviv University and holds a Masters in Urban Planning from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Now, she is studying a PhD from Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.After her stay in the Housing Chair (URV), Ms. Garfunkel tells us her experience: “Having returned home and looking back at my visit to Tarragona I want to share with you my gratitude for making this visit a most successful and pleasant experience. Prof. Nassare and all of the team at the Housing Chair were so hospitable, helpful and supporting beyond all expectations. I found a most welcoming environment. My visit opened for me new vistas regarding the topics of my research. I feel very fortunate to have been able to meet so many interesting people and to benefit from the discussions, input, and comments about my work, the situation in Cataluña, the problems you are facing, the ideas you have, and policies that are followed. These will continue to guide my future work and thinking.’’
Dr. Rosa Maria Garcia-Teruel
Is international Doctor in Laws with extraordinary doctorate award and Msc in Corporate and Contract Law URV. Currently she is postdoctoral researcher at the UNESCO Chair on Housing. Her PhD in civil law covered the legal aspects of tenancy agreements in which the tenant pays in kind (i.e. performing renovations), and it was funded by the Catalan Government (FI DGR 2015). In this field of research, she published a book, articles and book chapters, and she has presented her research in several national and international conferences (Denmark, Portugal, France, Hungary, United Kingdom, Albania, The Netherlands). She is researcher of several competitive projects and has carried out resarch stays at the Zentrum für Europäische Rechtspolitik, University of Bremen (Germany) and at the University of Groningen (The Netherlands). She is lecturer at the Degree of Law URV and at Real Estate Agent’s Course FURV. Her fields of research are tenancy law, construction law, property rights, housing policies and alternative funding for real estate development.
Dr. Brano Glumac
He is a researcher at Housing Observatory team within the Urban Development and Mobility Department of LISER, since May 2016. Prior to joining LISER, since 2012, he was working as an Assistant Professor at Built Environment Department at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) where he was teaching on 9 courses and guided 41 MSc projects. In July 2012, he finished his PhD in Real Estate and Planning in the doctoral programme of Design and Decision Support Systems at TU/e. During his PhD he received the ERES Award for the Best Paper. At the same university he received MSc degree in Real Estate Management and Development in 2007. Prior to that, he was working as an architect and urban planner in his hometown Belgrade where he have also started his studies and received a Dipl.-Ing. or MSc equivalent degree in Architecture and Planning in 2005. Since his PhD, my broad research focus on quantitative modelling applied in real estate and urban planning, with a special interest in decision support tools by which end users can experience the full potential of models and available data sets. He is a lead author of 2 working papers and 10 peer-reviewed journal articles among which are Journal of European Real Estate Research, Journal of Corporate Real Estate Research, ASCE Journal of Urban Planning and Development, Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, and Land Use Policy.
His most recent studies relate to housing price measurement and developing new housing concepts for more and more mobile world. These two area of research are cover by two most recent projects.
First regarding the housing price measurement, is a project aim to provide real estate valuation suitable for both in-country and cross-border property transactions and thus enable citizens to make more informed, unbiased and better decisions in the housing market. This project therefore provides an automated valuation model for residential property that is based on a nonconventional data generated by prosumers and it minimizes very common valuation biases. In most countries, there is a lack of access to collected data for citizens necessary to build any automated valuation model or index. Furthermore, in more developed economies there is a lack of access to collected data for citizens because data is mostly recorded within notarial deeds and by retail banks. On the other hand, people make mistakes when they value property. The idea is therefore not only to deliver good market value estimates but also to provide trusted information and help end-users to exploit it in the best possible way. Eventually, the beneficiaries of this project are households or prosumers that would like to either buy or sell their home. This approach would enable them to determine an appropriate residential property asking price or to set an appropriate negotiation margin, independently.
The second project is started with collaboration with UNESCO Housing Chair at Rovira I Virgili University and Prof. Dr. Sergio Nasarre Aznar. This project specifically explores the future alternative to traditional tenures of ownership and tenancy meant for increasingly mobile population in Europe. More specifically, the current global trends of an increasing number of migration influence housing requirements including mostly affordability and location flexibility. These requirements can be articulated by different housing solutions can be formulated. Despite the fact that numerous researchers have been studying the effects of traditional housing tenures, investigating new housing solutions remained rather a limited field of study. Therefore, we introduced the term flexible housing to describe a housing solution that enables households to relocate with ease but at the same time it should provide security, habitability and affordability.
Initial steps for this project are made and a part of was arrange during my visiting scholar stay at Rovira I Virgili University in Tarragona. I have spent excellent three weeks that provided me a necessary time and inspiration for our first joint publication. Here I would like thank warmly to Housing Chair team and especially to Gemma, Nuria, Rosa Maria, Jordi and Sergio that make my stay not only productive but especially pleasant!
Dr. Isabel de la Iglesia Monje
She is a tenured professor of the Faculty of Law at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), with three six-year research periods, four five-year teaching periods, and evaluated as an excellent professor (Docentia program), with an award for her work. She is a member of the Royal Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation of Madrid, a member of IDADFE, and a regular contributor to the Revista Crítica de Derecho Inmobiliario. With more than 200 publications in the areas of family, minors, civil liability and contracts. Director of the Research Group (UCM Derecho de daños. Derecho de la contratación). She has supervised 3 doctoral theses. She began her research work with the award of a UCM Predoctoral Scholarship in 1990-1994 and the completion of her thesis. He has participated as a speaker or presented papers in more than twenty national and international scientific conferences and meetings. He has participated in more than twenty teaching innovation projects being in one IP, and participated in several research projects. She has done research stays in some of the most prestigious foreign universities such as: Coimbra (2017), UNESCO Chair of Housing at the University Rovira i Virgili (Tarragona 2021), Oporto (2021-2022). ANECA evaluator. Manager of the European Legal Colloquium Foundation.
Dr. Katarzyna Królikowska
During my stay at the Housing Chair URV in Tarragona, I concentrated on research on the theoretical foundation of legal transplants and legal borrowing in housing and property law. Staying here gave me an outstanding opportunity to discuss and explain the concept of shared and temporal ownership that was introduced into Catalan law in 2015. My research program on the migration of the common law intermediate tenures into civilian legal order was developed before my arrival and has also been filled with interesting events, inspiring conference on shared ownership and very knowledgeable international workshop with an Israeli researcher. The stay was so stimulating that I am working on a manuscript of a journal article for publication based on this research and will apply some of my findings in a commentary to Polish law on housing cooperatives. During my stay at the Housing Chair I also worked here on the development of holiday timeshare tenures, especially on the mutual influence of the national legislation and experience in Catalonia on the new EU Timesharing Directive and on the way the Directive was implemented in the Spanish and Catalan Civil Codes. I am expecting an article to be published on that topic in Poland that will help to improve Polish legislation on our growing domestic market. My research stay at the University of Tarragona has been a great experience on all accounts. I have learned more than I expected in the field of Catalan, Spanish and European property and housing law. The Chair provided me with facilities for conduction my research project. The interactions with the other researchers, as well as with the attendees of the workshops organized on spot, have been very intellectually stimulating. The staff are very friendly and extremely helpful. Tarragona is a safe and tranquil city which suits for studying and living. There is a beautiful university campus and a library making an easy access to the materials for my study, both situated close to well preserved ancient Roman Old Town, where 2300 years buildings give you a glimpse of Roman significant developments in housing. In the surroundings of the city one can observe the current housing market in the time of global economic recession resulting in shrinking residential construction activity after housing boom, social housing developments and the ways in which the immigrants are being housed. To sum up, Tarragona is the perfect fit if you want to deepen your interest in international comparison of European housing tenures”.
Dr. Elga Molina Roig
Is the Head of the Housing Office of the Tarragona Regional Council. She holds a Degree in Law and a Master‘s Degree in Corporate and Contract Law, as well as a Diploma in Property Administration and Management. Doctor in Law since 2017, she obtained a Cum Laude with her PhD “A new regulation of residential urban leases in a European context”. Her professional career has taken place in different areas of the property sector: firstly in the private sector in real estate agencies, property administration and property development and marketing, and currently in the public sector dealing with social housing policy. Since last year she has been working with the URV’s Research Group on Access to Housing as its national reporter for the Project known as the 7th Framework Programme – TENLAW. She assisted and collaborated in the organisation of the 25th International Congress of the European Network for Housing Research: “Overcoming the crisis: integrating the urban environment”, in which she presented a paper on the current problems in urban leases. She has also delivered several conferences, seminars and workshops on public policies on property rental of the Catalan Government, as well as on the emancipation of young people.
Dr. Lorcan Sirr
Is an expert in Irish housing policy, and teaches housing studies, urban economics, valuations and research methods at Dublin Institute of Technolgy in Ireland. He is the editor of several books including ‘Dublin’s Future: new visions for Ireland‘s capital city’ (Liffey Press, 2011), and most recently ‘Renting in Ireland: the social, voluntary and private rented sectors’ (Institute of Public Administration, 2014), as well as papers on housing, the future of higher education, and particularly, renting. Dr Sirr writes regularly for Irish newspapers including The Irish Times and Irish Independent, and provides analysis of housing and rental markets for Irish television and radio. He is currently researching new ways of providing housing based on the tender-and-contract method used to deliver large-scale infrastructure. Lorcan has an MA from the Katholiek Universiteit Leuven, and an MA and PhD from the University of Manchester.
Dr. Estela Rivas Nieto
First Deputy Director of the UNESCO Housing Chair (2013-august 2022).
Associate Professor of Financial and Tax Law at the URV (since 1997). She is the author of the book “Atypical Taxes” (Marcial Pons, 2006), and coauthor of several books such as “Comments to avoid double taxation in the agreement to avoid double taxation in Mexico, and in Ecuador” (Marcial Pons, 2004 and 2006 respectively). She has published 27 chapters of books and has more than 28 scientific articles published in Spain, France, Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela. He has participated in the organization of more than 50 national and international conferences, seminars, workshops, webinars. She has delivered more than 45 speeches in Spain, France and in several Latin American countries. She has participated in more than 21 research projects: “Trust and trust in the international context of Latin America and Spain”( I+D), “Tenancy Law and Housing Policy in Multi-level Europe” (UE); “International Tax Law” (AGAUR), “Reforming housing holdings: tax proposal for comprehensive management of housing owned and leased” (I+D); “Financial, tax and commercial aspects of the collaborative economy; and she co-leads the project” (I+D)”; R2B Design and marketing of a “Good management of social housing Certificate”(CVS) (FURV). And it is currently the second IP of “Mobility, urban housing and rural housing in the digital era post covid-19: taxes, customs and financial situation” and the main IP of the project with the Tarragona Provincial Council “Taxation of housing in the local world”. She has been Secretary, Deputy Dean and Head of the Internal System of Quality Assurance of the Faculty of Legal Sciences of the URV. URV Social Council Award for teaching quality 2022. Her fields of research are international taxation, conventions to avoid double taxation, trust, constitutional tax principles, real estate taxation and collaborative economy.
Orcid ID: 0000-0002-4097-194X
Dr. Maridalia Rodriguez Padilla
Postdoctoral researcher at the UNESCO Housing Chair and associate professor of civil law at the University Rovira i Virgili (URV). She has a PhD in Law from the University of Barcelona (UB) where she obtained Cum Laude Excellence, has a Master`s Degree in Advanced Research and Specialized in Law from the University of Murcia (UMU) recognized as an Honorable Magister, and is Law Degree from the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD) with the Magna Cum Laude distinction. She has specialized in research on civil and real estate law, specifically on housing issues and financial legal instruments for access to affordable housing, in addition, she currently specializes in urban housing and city issues. She has participated in several research projects, such as “Proyecto sobre vehículos financieros y vivienda asequible” [Project on financial instruments and affordable housing] of the Housing Research Group (HRG) and the current “Certificado de Buena Gestión de Vivienda Social (CVS)” [Certificate of Good Management of Social Housing]one of the winning projects of the 2020 call of the Research To Business (R2B) of the URV Foundation. Has written several scientific publications and has participated in national and international conferences. She is the author of the book entitled “El fideicomiso inmobiliario y la inversión extranjera como instrumentos para mitigar el déficit habitacional” [The real estate trust and foreign investment as instruments to mitigate the housing deficit] which is the product of her doctoral thesis and is part of the “Housing Law” collection of the Tirant lo Blanch publishing house.
Dr. Milenka Villca Pozo
Is lecturer of Tax Law at the Faculty of Law of the Rovira i Virgili University since 2008. He received his PhD in European law at the University Rovira i Virgili in 2012, which received the special award of doctorate. She was the supernumerary Administrative Court, coercive Fiscal and Tax Superior Court of the District of Oruro (Bolivia). She is the author of a monograph on the legal and tax trust in the Andean Community and coordinator of the works “Tributário Direito, economic democracy and sob in perspective da União Europe” and “Experiences of Teaching and virtual innovation lecturing”. She also worked in several collective works and published in national and international reviews. She has participated as a speaker and as a member of the organizing committee in various seminars, workshops and conferences both nationally and internationally. She has also participated in various R & D projects and during the period 2013-2015 has been coordinator of the project “Teaching Innovation Group of the Faculty of Law,” approved and funded by the ICE-URV. Her main areas of research are taxation of trusts and trust, mutual funds, foreign trade, international tax and corporate profits.
Dr. Kurt Xerri
Is a doctor in Law for the Universitat Rovira i Virgili. His research focuses on Maltese post-war housing policy with particular regard to tenancy law. He has an LL.D and an MA (cum laude) from the University of Malta and was also appointed as a young researcher in the European TenLaw Project co-ordinated by the European University Institute (Bremen). He has also participated in the EU Pilot Project on Preventing Evictions and Homelessness were he was selected as the Maltese rapporteur by the managing consortium. Besides the said contributions he has also co-authored articles with Prof. Dr. Sergio Nasarre-Aznar (URV), Dr. David Zammit (University of Malta) and Prof. Maria Olinda Garcia (University of Coimbra) and has presented his works in various conferences including: the ENHR2014 Conference in Edinburgh, the TenLaw meetings in Tarragona (June 2013), Delft (January 2014) and Ljubljana (October 2014) as well as the 19th General Meeting of the Common Core of European Private Law in Torino (2013). He is also a casual lecturer at the University of Malta.
Dr. Leticia Asumu Bengo
Holds a Ph.D. in Law from the University of Navarra, a Master’s Degree in European Union from the Royal Institute of European Studies (Zaragoza), and a Bachelor’s Degree in Law from the University of Zaragoza.
Her specialization in the field of social human rights led her to choose the topic of her doctoral thesis entitled “The right to housing from a multilevel perspective. The cases of Spain and Equatorial Guinea”. It is a comparative study that addresses the protection of the human right to housing, in its international, regional, and domestic dimensions.
Her academic and training activities include regular participation in conferences, seminars, and discussion forums, both nationally and internationally; among others: University of Navarra (Spain), Strathmore University (Kenya); UNED-Center for Afro-Hispanic Studies (Spain), Syracuse University (USA), UN Human Rights Council (Geneva), European Commission (Brussels), European Court of Human Rights (Strasbourg), European Investment Bank (Luxembourg).
She is currently collaborating with the UNESCO Chair in Housing at the URV, where she is a postdoctoral fellow. Her field of research encompasses the following topics: the right to the city; the study of housing from a human rights-based approach; and the scope of the Sustainable Development Goals in African countries.
Emma López Solé
Associate lecturer of Civil Law. Law degree from the Rovira i Virgili University, LLM in International & European Law (Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK) and Masters in
Alternative Dispute Resolution: Mediation (IL3-Universitat de Barcelona). Specialist in conflict resolution and business organizations. She worked as a deputy judge in the region of Tarragona. She started working in the field of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) in 2003 as a manager of audit and quality brand mediation of the Legal Services Commission in the UK. Lawyer no. 2140 in Tarragona (ICAT); certified mediator of the Mediation Center of Private Law Justice Department of Catalonia; CEMIC and registration of mediators Council of Chambers of Commerce of Catalonia. Also founding member of Addo Conflict Resolution. She is the co-director and coordinator of graduate specialization in mediation of the Foundation of the Rovira i Virgili University.
