PhD Programme
Description of the PhD Programme
The Legal Sciences PhD programme is organised over three years. During the first year, PhD students are expected to attend courses and scientific seminars of basic and common interest (lectures with Italian and foreign guests) on general legal issues annually chosen by the scientific committee – e.g. the concept of “dignity”, the “juridical method”, the relevance of “time” in juridical matters, and specific teaching initiatives, such as the improvement of Legal English, the use of ICT and databases. During the second year, PhD students are required to reinforce their knowledge on research methodologies and are strongly encouraged to: submit scientific articles and publications to their tutor and to the Scientific Committee; perform presentations in conferences and meetings; spend a research period of at least three months in Universities and HEIs abroad. During the third year, the students must focus their work on writing their PhD dissertation, preparing for the final discussions in front of an ad hoc Commission. As for the teaching-researching method adopted, every student is assigned to an academic supervisor (tutor), who takes care of the training and the research activities of the PhD candidate and supervises the participation to specific seminars and events in Italy or abroad. Particular attention is paid to achieving a high level of competence in legal English and information technologies, as well as in the effective use of national and international research databases. Once a year the student must submit the results of their research to the Collegium of teachers, who decide on the admission of the candidate to the next year; at the end of their course, each candidate must submit and discuss a written thesis with a commission of Italian and/or foreign experts and scholars. The quality of the research developed within the PhD course is evaluated once a year by the University structures and by a national committee: a positive result is a condition for the accreditation of the PhD course by the Italian Ministry of Education.
PhD student selection criteria
PhD students are selected according to a public call. Applicants can choose to apply to one of the main fields of juridical interest (e.g. from administrative to criminal law, from public law to employment law), established every year within the wide range of juridical sectors and set by the Scientific Committee. The selection is based on the evaluation of scientific titles and the result of an interview
Supervision modalities for the PhD student
At the beginning of their PhD course in Juridical Sciences, each student is assigned to an academic supervisor, in charge of tutoring their training and their research activities. Within the PhD course, once a year, the students must submit the results of their research to the Scientific Committee, who decide on the admission of the candidate to the next year; at the end of the course, each candidate must discuss a written thesis with a Commission of Italian and/or foreign experts and scholars. To facilitate periods of study abroad, the University scholarship amounts are increased by 50% for up to 18 months