He was born in Murcia on 4 December 1952. He graduated in Law summa cum laude, promoted, directed and was a Professor of Legal Philosophy and Political Philosophy at the Institute of Human Rights in the University of Valencia, and was director of the Colegio de España in Paris.
He has worked on issues related to human rights, especially policies on migration, minorities, citizenship, racism and xenophobia. He was chosen as an expert by the European Union for the EU’s Human Rights Dialogue with China on the rights of minorities, racism and xenophobia. He has participated in the European Union Daphne Programme on legal responses to the practice of female genital mutilation. He has trained lawyers and others working in the legal field.
He has been a lecturer and guest lecturer at numerous universities and research centres in Europe and America, and is a member of several scientific councils and human rights institutes. He was a magistrate of the Valencian Community’s High Court of Justice, President of the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid, a member of the National Human Rights Plan Monitoring Committee, a member of the ATTAC Scientific Council, a member of the UNESCO HPSD (High Panel on Science, Technology and Innovation for Development), and a member of the editorial staff of the Spanish edition of Le Monde Diplomatique. He has written more than thirty works, most of them on human rights, equality and immigrants. The latest is Mediterráneo: El naufragio de Europa (2015).
In the area of film, he has been a pioneer in studies of law and the cinema, creator and director of the “Cine y derecho” collection, founder of the university network of the same name and of the “Cine y Migraciones” research group. He directs the “Cine y derecho” and “Derechos humanos” collections, published by Tirant lo Blanch. He has written essays, including Blade Runner: el derecho, guardián de la diferencia (2002) and Cine: lecciones de libertad (2013). He has participated in numerous conferences, debates and round tables on film.
LiberPress Cinema Award 2015
Javier de Lucas won the LiberPress Cinema 2015 Award for the exceptional philosophical, sociological and ideological contribution he has made to the study of cinema, analysing this art form and medium, with intelligence and ingenuity, adopting a multidisciplinary, scholarly, humanistic and supportive approach; showing us the messages of films and their importance in the field of human rights, especially in the case of migration and inequality, but also in the power-people relationship; helping to reveal, humanise and look more deeply at the ideological and aesthetic keys to directors and their work, especially in relation to justice and injustice. All this is done meticulously, with an open mind, an acute and brilliant perception, and great sensitivity, comparable to a constant “nouvelle, mais aussi perdurable, vague“.