The Post-Graduation Program in Law (PGPL), recommended on January 5th, 2017, is a historical construction that is linked to the Law Course implementation on August 7th, 1996, which had in its planning the creation of a Stricto-Sensu Post-Graduation Program in the area of Law, idea that was solidified in the construction of research and university extension actions which were focused on the themes of human rights, citizenship, the State, democracy, society and public policies. In this regard, the Center for Human Rights and Citizenship Research and the Center for State, Politics and Law Research were created. Both centers have historically constituted and underpinned the two lines of research and the concentration area of the Master's Program in Law at the University of the Extreme South of Santa Catarina (UNESC).

  The line of research “Human Rights, Citizenship and New Rights” is based on research carried out within the scope of the Center for Human Rights and Citizenship Research and, similarly, the line of research “Law, Society and State” is based on research carried out within the Center for State, Politics and Law Research. Together with these Centers, other ones were created over the years, thus contributing to the construction of research which consolidated the pathway to the recommendation of the PGPL/UNESC in its first submission.

  Therefore, since its implementation, the PGPL/UNESC has been adding a proposal to the academic legal area in the south of the country and that proposal has been given rise to a theoretical/practical knowledge which is not dissociated from the tangible and plural reality of the growing interests of the community, with the objective of contributing to the training of professors, providing them with skills to manage their professional activity as well as to guarantee and implement rights, allowing reflection and improvement of the skills, incorporating and creating new knowledge which stimulates social transformation space. Moreover, producing knowledge in practice is also a way of penetrating the Law operators` visions of institutionalized reality, by means of their experience in order to change it, understanding that the greater the association of interdisciplinary theoretical knowledge with real practical experiences, the greater the possibility of input to a further profile, one which is more humanist, less dogmatic and more socially committed to the reality of the country. The program has been consolidated nationally and has also presented several international actions.

  Partnership was established with 18 (eighteen) national postgraduate programs. The program has also entered six national research networks:
a) Egrupe Network, involving Unesc, Unisc and FMP/RS programs;
b) Common Network, involving Unesc, Unilassale, UCS programs as well as researchers from Franciscan University and Sevilha University;
c) Recijur – Republicanism, Citizenship and Jurisdiction, involving Unesc, UCS, UFSC and Unochapecó;
d) Brazilian Network of Human Rights Legal Research ( Unesc, Uniritter, Unijuí, Puc-Campinas, UFMS, UNICAP, UNIT, UFPA, Cesupa);
e) Law and Public Policy Research Network;
f) National Network of Black Researchers (CONEABS) and Brazilian Association of Black Researchers ( ABPN).

  Internationally, the program, through its researchers, participates in 4 international networks, in one under development and in a CLACSO WG:
a) CLACSO WG;
b) Southern Cone Network of Researchers in Prisons which involves UNESC, UCPEL, UFPEL, UDELAR (Uruguay), University of the Coast (Argentina) and University of Asuncion (Paraguay);
c) International Network for Latin American Democratic Constitutionalism (RCDLA);
d) REDidi (Ibero-American Network for Teaching and Research on Children's Rights);
e) Ibero-American Network of Sanitary Law;
f) Development of the Law and Development Network together with members of the following institutions: Agostinho Neto University (Angola), Eduardo Mondlane University (Mozambique), Higher Institute of Legal and Social Sciences from Cape Verde, and University of Macao (China).

  Moreover, the program has acted in a consolidated way in social insertion and university extension, carrying out various actions and projects, focusing on the School of Leadership and the Community and Social Leadership Course, which counted on the participation of 100 course participants from 11 Brazilian member-states and from 52 municipalities; NEGRA actions and the project “OAB going to schools”, together with OAB/Criciúma-SC which has benefitted 950 students from Elementary and High Schools. The program promoted more than 140 events between 2017-2020 (seminars, conferences, mini-courses, dialogues, meetings, master classes, lectures, workshops, open classes, etc.), beeing more than 80 in 2020 (held remotely due to the pandemic). These events counted on the participation of more than 12,000 people, from all Brazilian member-states, from the capital Brasília, and from several countries.

  In this regard, the program has been consolidated, acting nationally  (and also contributing regionally), due to the impact of its scientific production, social insertion, participation in research networks, partnerships, academic production, organization of events and the recognition of the activities of  its teaching staff, thus contributing to the training of highly qualified human resources who have been committed to construct an interdisciplinary and critical approach to human rights, seeking the legal thinking transformation, from an emancipatory, democratic, participatory dialogue which incorporates the debate on the relationship between State and society and on public policies, especially the social ones.