Law, Community and Justice

The goal of the project is to create a platform for the PhD students to exchange the most recent knowledge and research in their fields of study, by highlighting how new developments in law and in legal research impact the general development in society.

As a matter of vision, this BIP project aims to highlight a fact which is not always apparent: new research and new developments in law have a significant impact on everyday life in our communities. The programme intends to accommodate new doctrinal, normative and socio-legal perspectives, coming from PhD students from different legal cultures, both civil law, and common law.

Indeed, the original thematic aspect brought by the project is looking at law not as a phenomenon which regulates already existing social realities, but as a phenomenon which, by its development, changes the society itself.

The chronological structure of the project as proposed is: 

• the PhD students submit proposals of a paper/ research topic; 
• during the virtual part, the topics are discussed with professors, who give feedback, suggest new directions for research; 
• based on thematic relevance, the similarity between the fields in which they conduct their research and the selected topic, panels of four students are established,
• one month ahead of the physical component, the students submit their papers, which are sent to the professors and the members of the panels; 
• during the physical component, PhD students present their papers and get feedback from the members of the panel, the professors involved and the other students.

The general topic of the course will be related to the way new developments in law and in legal research impact the general development in society.

The particular topics that will be discussed will be based on the candidates' submissions. For example, a panel might be related to legal theory and philosophy, linking it with issues in the applied/ doctrinal fields of law.

The aim of the project is to promote cooperation between PhD students from CIVIS Law faculties, by exchanging knowledge and highlighting the role of law and legal research in society. The innovative element is based on this mechanism in which PhD students themselves (organised in a panel of four) give feedback to their colleagues, based on the presentation, but also on the fact that the members of the panel will have received the paper one month in advance.

As such, firstly, the PhD students are expected to learn and receive feedback from one another, in an active/ collective learning approach. Secondly, students are expected to learn from their professors how to communicate and disseminate the results of their research to various audiences.

Most importantly, the students are expected to learn how to integrate a social analysis in their research, i.e. the way their research might contribute to social change, thus promoting a strong link to society.

During the physical part, each participant will present his research in front of his fellow colleagues. After the presentation, four of his colleagues, grouped in a panel based on thematic relevance, will ask questions on the topic presented and discuss the findings of the researcher. Professors are not part of this panel of four, but they can contribute in the discussion after the panel expresses its opinion. In addition, during the physical part there will also be an introductory course given by some of the professors involved, which are intended to support the students in their presentations.

The virtual part will consist of online preparatory meetings with the students and the professors, for offering the necessary prerequisites for the physical part of the project.

As a first step, participating PhD students will submit a topic and a summary of a future paper, in English or French. The topic will be assessed by a group of professors who, based on all applications, might suggest some adjustments to the topic, so that it will not be too specific and would fit in the general framework of the project: the role law plays in social change and development.

The selection and refinement of topics will also occur during the virtual part, when some professors will conduct workshops or lectures on how to integrate a social-analysis perspective in legal research and how to communicate the results of a given legal research to fellow colleagues from various fields of law or from other areas of science. After the topic is confirmed and refined during the virtual part, the PhD student will start writing a short paper on the topic. As he works on the paper, he will be assisted by one of the professors involved. After completing the paper, the PhD student will submit it one month prior to the beginning of the physical part.

The assesmment is based on an oral evaluation, built on a presentation given by each student during the physical mobility. After the presentations, the students will also receive feedback from the professors. Each paper submitted by the PhD students will be reviewed by a professor before being published in a book dedicated to the project.

Motivation Letter

CV

Research project outlines

Applicants will be selected on the basis of their academic background, motivation and the relevance of the proposed reseach subject for the BIP.

All the professors, coming from each university involved in the project, will assist a panel of PhD students, based on the topics submitted, in order to assist them with the preparation of their paper. As such, the professors will curate the online sessions of this panel and then the physical session.