PhD
The Doctoral School of “European Union Law and National Legal Systems” is a highly accredited scientific institution, and a key element of the Department’s internationalisation policy. There are two curricula, both focusing on a plurality of subjects, all of which have direct or indirect European relevance.
In order to strengthen the internationalisation of the training programme, candidates must spend a period of study and research at a foreign university for at least three months.
PhD candidates may write their thesis in languages other than Italian, subject to agreement with their tutors.
Doctoral programme
Curricula:
1) Sources of law, institutions and fundamental rights protections
2) Policies of the European Union
The first curriculum is aimed at training professional legal experts on the general issues related to the Europeanisation of law. PhD candidates could then focus on issues concerning the institutional framework of European integration or constitutional problems stemming from the relationship between national, supranational and international legal systems, with a special focus on fundamental rights protection; or on the multiple issues related to European legal integration in substantive and procedural criminal matters.
Similarly with a view to training legal professional experts on the general issues concerning the Europeanisation of law, the second curriculum is intended to address the issues related to specific EU policies implemented by means of secondary law sources, either directly applicable in the national legal system or to be transposed into national law.
The final objective of the Phd programme is to train legal experts who are fully aware of the complex issues related to the European integration process.
It has an intensive interdisciplinary approach, which spans all the fundamental legal fields involved in the European integration process. With the help of individual supervisors and of the entire teaching staff, PhD candidates will first investigate the specific subject of their research in depth, with a view to completing their doctoral thesis. In order to support such investigation, while at the same time offering the PhD candidates the methodological skills necessary to become European legal experts, the organization of the PhD programme envisages a number of coordinated activities: courses common to the undergraduate programme, with specific reference to courses taught in English and courses strictly related to the Europeanisation of legal science; series of lectures given by members of the teaching staff, as well as by members of the teaching staff of other PhD schools linked by cooperation agreements, and by renowned scholars (academic professors, judges of European Courts, high officials of European institutions); and an interdisciplinary session aimed at promoting interaction and exchange among PhD candidates in different subjects. The PhD programme includes compulsory periods of research abroad at accredited foreign Universities or supranational institutions and which serve to complete the cultural and technical skills of the candidates.