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.

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.