Born in Arjona (Jaén), Pedro Mercado Pacheco is a Professor (Catedrático) of Philosophy of Law at the Faculty of Law, where he lectures on the inter-university Master's Degree in Culture of Peace, Conflicts, Education and Human Rights, among other programmes. He has been a visiting professor at the Universities of Edinburgh (UK), Catania (Italy), Guanajuato (Mexico), and at the Centre for Legal Studies of Puebla (Mexico). He has also lectured on and coordinated the UGR Master's Degree in Legal Responses to the Phenomenon of Globalisation at the University of Camagüey (Cuba). Moreover, he has served as the Coordinator of the Master's Degree in Human Rights at the UGR, which is offered in collaboration with the Human Rights Ombudsman's Office of the State of Guanajuato (Mexico).
In the field of research, Pedro Mercado is the recipient of an Outstanding Doctorate Award. He is the author of several books, book chapters, and research articles on the economic analysis of law, as well as on globalisation, the State and law. His latest lines of research focus on the fields of governance, democracy and law, new forms of slavery, and human rights. He has carried out research stays in Edinburgh, Rome and Catania, and has participated in eight research projects of excellence at the national and regional levels. He was the Principal Investigator of the project "New Forms of Slavery and Human Rights", funded by the Spanish National R&D&I Plan. Between 2008 and 2014 he was the editor of the Anales de la Cátedra Francisco Suárez (ACFS) journal, which focuses on legal and political philosophy, and has also been an editorial board member for numerous research journals. He is a member of the UGR's Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (IPAZ) and of the Iberoamerican Research Network on Modern-day Slavery and Human Rights.
Prof Mercado has held multiple university management positions in a variety of roles. He has been a member of the University Senate during several terms (2004-2008 and from 2012 to the present), and has held the post of Academic Secretary of the Department of Philosophy of Law (1996-2000). He was a member of the Technical Committees that advised on the drafting of the new UGR Statutes in 2003 and their partial reform in 2009. Moreover, he was Director of the General Technical Secretariat for Regulatory Development (2004-2007) and has held the positions of University of Granada Deputy Secretary (2007), University of Granada Secretary (2015-2019) and Vice-Rector for Institutional Policy and Planning (2019-2022).
