Courses

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM cycle XXXIX – A.A. 2023/2024

Disciplinary Areas

The Ph.D. holds an interdisciplinary character and covers the following scientific-disciplinary areas:

IUS/01 – Private Law
IUS/02 – Comparative private law
IUS/04 – Commercial law
IUS/05 – Economic Law
IUS/07 – Labor law
IUS/08 – Constitutional law
IUS/09 – Institutions of public law
IUS/10 – Administrative law
IUS/12 – Tax law
IUS/13 – International law
IUS/14 – Law of the European Union
IUS/15 – Civil procedural law
IUS/16 – Criminal procedural law
IUS/17 – Criminal law
IUS/20 – Philosophy of law
IUS/21 – Comparative public law

Program structure

The Doctorate in Law and Business is divided into three academic years.
Each year of the course is divided into two semesters.

Each year includes in-depth teaching and scholarly activities for about 60 CFU, and in any case for a total of 180 CFU to be reached in the three-year period.

The first one and a half year of the course is characterized by the prominence of lecture and seminar activities. The first three semesters include modules of lectures and seminars on topics of major scientific interest for the disciplinary areas involved, according to an approach that ensures a theoretical-practical approach and with a strong multidisciplinary vocation. The schedule of curricular classes runs, for the I semester, from September to January, and for the II semester, from March to June.
The I semester of the first year is characterized by an in-depth cultural and scientific study of major topics (methods and techniques of interpretation, constitutional principles, human rights, business, contract), which are fundamental to launching a path of high specialization in the field of legal and social sciences and developing and/or enhancing the research skills of doctoral students.
Ph.D. students are engaged-through self-study and participation in collective educational initiatives-to implement the basic general preparation, which cuts across all specialization curricula.
From the first semester, the calendar of curricular lectures is complemented by additional modules and Lectures conducted by Visiting Professors and representatives of national and international Institutions (Constitutional Court, CGE, EDU Court, Anac Court of Cassation, Privacy Guarantor, Council of State, Consob, Police, State Attorney’s Office).
In the second semester of the first year, doctoral students continue their training by participating in lecture modules dedicated to an in-depth study of the central themes pertaining to the doctoral area of interest in the various relevant areas: international and European law, intellectual property law, protection of fundamental rights, competition law, transnational business crimes, and corporate compliance. All this always through participation in courses referable to the doctoral curricula: management of disputes in the domestic, international and Euro-unitary system; markets and regulation; business, finance and taxation, as well as in coherence with the monographic theme that is the subject of the XXXIX cycle.

Beginning in the second semester of the first year, course offerings are delivered entirely in English.

During the II semester of the first year, the Board assigns each doctoral student a supervisor, with whom the provisional title of the doctoral thesis is defined, together with the location (University or other Institutions) abroad where the research activity will be carried out during the fourth semester. The period of research abroad is, indeed, mandatory for doctoral students holding fellowships.

During Year II, the first semester is entirely devoted to the subject matter of the doctoral course, which, as anticipated, for Cycle XXXIX.

The theme  is approached from a multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral perspective so as to equip doctoral students with a deep and broad knowledge of the dynamics and intersections between law and economics. Cross-disciplinary modules on research and dissertation-writing methodologies (including in English), economic analysis of law and the market, are also provided.

At the conclusion of each semester of classes, doctoral students participate in a 20-hour Legal English course, structured in conjunction with the Trinity School, aimed at strengthening written and oral expression skills in a technical form, as well as ensuring preparation to take the IELTS exam, also in view of doctoral students’ applications for research periods abroad.

From the II semester of the II year, the activity of doctoral students is directed to the planning and writing of the doctoral thesis, according to predefined steps. A period of 6/9 months of study at a foreign University or Scientific Institution, chosen on the basis of the candidate’s research theme and at which it will also be possible to provide for the completion of the required CFUs, as well as the possibility of arranging specific research programs that will enable the PhD degree to be obtained at the host University as well, is also envisaged. This is therefore the possibility of access to forms of co-tutorship, to be initiated as early as the first year of the cycle. This period may be brought forward, as early as the first semester of the second year, if scientific needs require it.

During the first and second semesters of the third year, doctoral students are still expected to participate in conferences, seminars and in-depth meetings organized by the Department and the University. In addition, special seminars are planned in which doctoral students will be able to share with the Luiss scientific community the progress of their work, the goals they have achieved and the research itineraries subject to further development.

By September 15 of the third year, all Ph.D. students must turn in their research thesis.

For details: handbook a.a. 2022-23

Program Goals

The educational objective of the Ph.D. is to offer an advanced course of study that combines the analysis of the theoretical and practical profiles of the issues pertaining to the area of interest, market and enterprise.

The approach to the study and in-depth study of the phenomena in question is characterized by a strong focus on the supranational regulatory framework, the experience of other legal systems, and the dialogue between domestic and international courts. The figure of the researcher that is intended to be enhanced is that of a scholar with a solid theoretical foundation, capable of grasping the practical implications and thus of measuring himself with the applicative relapses of the research conducted, attentive and aware of the interactions between the domestic and supranational planes, with a marked sensitivity to comparison and exchange with other knowledge.

At the end of the three-year period, doctoral students should have the knowledge and skills to develop a personal research itinerary and to elaborate a final thesis that represents the culmination of the monographic investigation conducted.

The Doctorate in Law and Business aims to ensure that each participant achieves an appreciable level of scientific and research autonomy, as well as to develop adequate critical and analytical skills. Thus, the aim is to enable all doctoral students to investigate and deepen in a personal way and in an interdisciplinary perspective broad research topics with theoretical-practical implications.

The objective of the PhD is also to build a bridge between research and the labor market, forming figures of interest to public administrations, national and European Authorities, companies, professional firms, able to combine high scientific knowledge with the ability to understand also the technological dimension of reference.