Bengoetxea Caballero, José Ramón

Joxerramon Bengoetxea (Irun, Gipuzkoa, 1963) is a Professor of Philosophy of Law. He has been a professor at the UPV-EHU since 1990, and was the director of the International Master in Sociology of Law from 2007 to 2024. He was also scientific director of the International Institute for the Sociology of Law (2005-07) in Oñati. 

Professor Bengoetxea obtained his doctorate at tyhe University of Edinburgh (1990), eith a research grant from the Basque Government (1986-89). He wrote his thesis under the direction of Neil MacCormick, and the book based on his it, The Legal Reasoning of the European Court of Justice, was published in 1993 by Oxford University Press.

His research has focused on judicial decision-making, judicial dialogue, the sociology of judges, the argumentation used in the application of the law, legal language and analysis, and legal logic. His analysis of the process of European integration has led him to European federalism and the participation of nations and regions without their own state in Europe. He has also focused on the system of human rights in Europe and the ups and downs of political integration at the European level. Legal culture and its comparison have been his other object of study and research, and he has also analysed transitional justice, seen from its relationship with the criminal justice system. On all these subjects he has directed eleven doctoral theses and published more than two hundred scientific publications in different languages: English, French, Basque, Spanish. He is the author of five books or monographs, and a sixth one in print, and he has coordinated several books.

As a researcher and lecturer, he has participated in dozens of research projects, travelling around Europe and spending time in various places around the world: Berlin in 1988, Florence and Saarbrücken in 1989, Oxford in 2001, Helsinki in 2006, Bordeaux annually since 2012, Stanford for a term in 2012, Helsinki for another term in 2013, Kansai (Osaka) for five weeks in 2014 and Florence again in 2016 and 2017. His academic career has been recognised with an honorary doctorate from the University of Helsinki in 2023, the first and only one in Spain to receive this recognition in the legal and human (Arts) sciences. His work has also been recognised in the Basque Country, where he has received several awards: the Eusko Ikaskuntza Award (2010) and the Jesús María Leizaola Award (2021).

Outside of university, he was a lawyer for the Court of Justice of the European Union with the British judge (1993-98 and 2001-2004), and was Secretary General of the Basque Council of the European Movement (2015-2020) and Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Security of the Basque Government between 1998 and 2001. He was also a member of the Basque Electoral Board for one term of office and has been a member of the Arbitration Commission for Araba since 2015. In terms of university management, he was secretary of the Faculty of Law between 1991 and 1993 and director and coordinator of the ehuGune programme between 2012 and 2021.