PhD in European Law

• European Law
• European Markets Law

Curriculum 1: European Law

• General principles of European law and EU institutional law
• European citizenship and the non discrimination principle
• EU fundamental rights and freedoms and the Charter of Fundamental Rights
• Internal market and other EU sectoral policies
• Economic and monetary Union
• EU external relations

Curriculum 2: European Markets Law

• Financial and banking Law
• Labour Law and social protection policies
• Industrial competitiveness, innovation and entrepreneurship european policies
• Employment and social affairs european policies (social inclusion, microfinance, female and young entrepreneurship, financial education)
• Fiscal Administration and legal protection for European tax payers
• Legal instruments for innovations and sustainable development
• Legal instruments for digital market
• Internationalization of law and contributions for the creation of a global legal order

NRPP Call - Further PhD Positions
Appointed by RD 1952/2022 Prot. n. 0357333 of 02/12/2022

Call for Application and NRRP Call
Appointed by RD 830/2022 Prot. n. 0127511 of 30/05/2022
Confirmed by RD 1103/2022 Prot. n. 0162873 of 17/07/2022

The Ph.D course in EU Law aims at preparing professionals by providing them with comprehensive skills in EU Law and European Law & Economics, characterized by a particularly broad scientific analysis related to those topics, to allow them to implement their knowledge in academic and scientific institutions, in private and public organization and private companies, national, European and international.
Owing to its interdisciplinary nature, the Ph.D. focuses its training activity on in-depth analysis of the EU integration progress and the impact of European policy decisions on the legal and economic aspects of national systems, with the presence and contribution of professors part of the PhD course but also of external Italian or foreign professors who participate in scientific and didactic activities.

The activities carried out by the PhD students are those traditional of scientific research in the field of law:

• identification of sources and data
• analysis of case law
• general theory studies
• processing original results in terms of exegesis and systematic reconstruction.

In addition to writing the PhD thesis, all doctoral candidates are encouraged to engage in supplementary educational activities on topics related to their field of research and to attend national and international seminars and conferences. Students may be invited to participate in seminars organized by Italian and foreign universities in order to discuss their research projects and provisional results obtained before scientific committees.

In addition to teaching activities on topics related to the doctoral course, the training of doctoral students also includes activities aimed at stimulating their networking ability, their capacity to access research funds and competitive projects, communicate and present research results.

In particular the activities focuses on:

• Specific training activities, cycles of theme-based seminars, Summer and Winter Schools, higher education courses, conferences, workshops, international lectures, for both the Curricula of the EU Ph.D.
• Training programme and educational and scientific activities realized through the Jean Monnet Action, in the Interuniversity Research Centre for Comparative Law and the Study Centre for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, in addition to other different activities organized by the lectureres.
• Activities dedicated to networking and the ability to access research funds.

Training pathway

Year I

• Common traineeship activities for both Curricula (e.g.: meetings on the latest developments in European Court decisions; seminars on methodology, seminars on economic freedom in the EU system, etc.)
• General traineeship activities for both the Curricula and specific seminars for each of them
• Participation in scientific initiatives on the research topics of the three-year project, both national and international

Year II

• Common traineeship activities for both Curricula and specific seminars for each of them.
• Mandatory period of at least six months abroad, at a foreign University, European Institution or Research facility, under the supervision of a professor

Year III

Participation in all traineeship activities and focus on completing the Ph.D. thesis, including the option of writing it at the foreign University or Institution.

The Ph.D course in EU Law is based on a netwok of international universities and research facilities (ie. King’s College and Queen Mary University – London, Maastricht University, Strasbourg University, China University of Political Science and Law – Beijing, China Scholarship Council, University of International Business and Economics, Beijing), which have improved both mobility opportunities for graduate students and lectures, and assessed the opportunity for joint research projects. The Ph.D course also benefits from the work of the Jean Monnet lectureship, the International Agency for Research in European Law, the Interuniversity Research Centre on Comparative Law, the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence 'Consumers and SMEs in the Digital Single Market', the Research Center for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and the International European Distance Education in Law Network (EDELNet).
A general framework agreement with the Universidad Nacional de Education a Distancia, Madrid, is active.
The Ph.D course in EU Law requires Ph.D students to spend abroad for a minimum of 6 months, during the 3 years-duration of the Ph.D course, in accredited universities and research facilities. Alternatively, still as part of the training period abroad, the possibility is given to carry out an internship at the Court of Justice of the EU in Luxembourg.
A fruitful mobility of the lecturers of the Ph.D course is ongoing; this has made it possible for them to forge stable relationships with prestigious foreign universities and international research institutions.
The PhD course in European Law organizes international master lectures dedicated to the topics of the PhD held by professors and representatives of European and international institutions.

The PhD student’s activities will have the following main results:

• the acquisition and improvement of rigorous working methods in the field of research, suited to both future professional developments in the academic field and to high quality profile professions both in the public sector (e.g. law offices, legislative offices, internal consultants) and in the private sector (experts in corporate law, legal offices within companies, external consultants, etc.)
• drawing up a doctoral thesis, the results of which each student shall make public (subject to intellectual property protection limitations, where necessary), in a structured format and according to qualitative parameters similar to those required by scientific publications of international relevance
• the presentation of reports, communications or posters on the occasion of both national and international conferences, with their publication as conference reports.
• the production and publication of papers and scientific articles in national scientific journals with the highest level of classification according to the ANVUR parameters and/or in foreign scientific journals of international relevance in topics relating to European law, including the economic profiles of EU policies, by demonstrating a comprehensive and thorough knowledge of the whole area of EU law and EU market law.