PhD Programme in Legal Studies
Amsterdam Law School
- Topic To Research Question
Lecturer: Benjamin van Rooij
During this session al participants will jointly discuss how best to develop research questions to study their topic of inquiry. We shall learn what role a research question has and what attributes a good research question embodies. The core of the session will entail an interactive discussion of research questions developed by participants with a focus on their relevance and feasibility in answering them during a PhD research project.
Date: 09.09, Tuesday: 11-13, C1.05
- Ethics
Lecturer: Benjamin van Rooij
During this session we shall discuss the ethical challenges of legal research. We shall do so based on the Dutch research ethics code and look at four core aspects: authorship, conflicts of interest, human subject risk, and proper reflection of data in conclusions. We shall look at the particular dilemmas we face and the procedures our school has adopted to ensure compliance with ethics. Moreover, we shall reflect on insights from behavioural science about how we come to make decisions in light of ethical standards.
Date: 16.09, Tuesday: 11-13, A3.15
- Theory of Legal Research
Lecturer: Chantal Mak and Leila Faghfouri Azar
This PhD course offers a theoretical engagement with the foundations of legal research. It is structured around 2 core questions of What is law? and What should law be?. It, therefore, examines law not only as a body of rules, but as a social construct, a tool for social and political transformation, as well as a site of power, resistance, and critique. Through the lenses of critical legal theory and decolonial perspectives, the course invites students to interrogate how legal knowledge is produced, contested, and reshaped. The course helps students to explore diverse modes of legal research through emphasizing the fluid boundaries between law and other disciplines. Moreover, it equips students to articulate and situate their own research within this complex scholarly terrain.
This course contains 4 weekly seminars of 3 hours. It also includes a study visit to the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies in Amsterdam. There, students will engage with archival research methods and explore how historical inquiry enriches critical legal scholarship. Designed as a foundational step in the journey of doctoral research, this course aims to empower PhD candidates with the analytical tools and interdisciplinary awareness necessary to navigate and contribute meaningfully to contemporary legal scholarship.
Dates: This course has 4 lessons
04.09, Thursday: 11-14, A3.15
11.09, Thursday: 11-14, A3.01
18.09, Thursday: 11-14, A3.01
25.09, Thursday: 11-14, C2.05
- Normative Analysis
Lecturer: Marijn Sax
Law is an inherently normative discipline, but how can we ‘do’ normativity? In this seminar, we discuss several types of normative critique (e.g., external critique, immanent critique), several sources of normativity (e.g., first principles, subjectivity, nature), and explore strategies to combine these normative resources to advance coherent, convincing normative arguments. There is special attention for the relationship between different disciplines and the question of how their respective normative logics/methods can inform each other. For example, what role can (or should?) philosophical/ethical reasoning play in normative legal reasoning? The overall aim of the seminar is to help researchers make motivated choices for specific normative styles of argumentation and communicate those choices transparently to their audience.
Date: 09.10, Thursday: 11-14, C2.05
- Causal Inference
Lecturer: Amit Zac
This course introduces participants to foundational methods in statistical inference and causal reasoning, with a focus on empirical legal research. Using the R programming language, participants will gain hands-on experience working with real-world observational data and develop the skills to critically assess quantitative legal studies.
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
- Understand key theoretical concepts in causal inference design;
- Acquire basic R programming skills and the tools to continue learning independently;
- Analyse observational data using central tendency metrics;
- Conduct and interpret Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression analysis;
- Critically evaluate empirical research based on observational legal data;
- Lay the groundwork for future interdisciplinary research collaborations with social scientists.
Dates: This course has 5 dates, where the first 2 hours are mandatory, and the second 2 hours are elective
16.10, Thursday: 11-13 and 13-15, A3.01
23.10, Thursday: 11-13 and 13-15, A3.01
30.10, Thursday: 11-13 and 13-15, JKB.18
13.11, Thursday: 11-13 and 13-15, JKB.18
20.11, Thursday: 11-13 and 13-15, JKB.18
- Machine Learning and AI
Lecturer: Davide Grossi
The course introduces the students to the intersection of legal studies with research in artificial intelligence (AI). It aims at equipping the students with some fundamental knowledge about key AI techniques of potential relevance for the study of law. It will consist of 4 sessions in which we will cover fundamental principles behind machine learning, automated reasoning and large language models. Based on what learned at classes, students are expected to present a paper of their own choosing and relevant to their field of research, in which AI techniques play a methodological role. The course does not presuppose any previous knowledge of AI or computer science.
Dates: This course has 4 classes
27.11, Thursday: 11-14, B1.02
11.12, Thursday: 11-14, A3.01
22.01, Thursday: 11-14, A3.01
29.01, Thursday: 11-14, A3.01
- Publication Strategy
Lecturer: Benjamin van Rooij
During this session we will discuss how to develop a strategy to publish your academic work. We will look at options for publishing articles during or after your PhD. We shall look at the process of peer review and editorial decision making and the different types of procedures that exist and the challenges to overcome. We will also discuss how to find the best journals or publishers for your work, as well as possibilities for publishing to a broader general or professional audience. In all this we shall consider the overall goals the researchers are pursuing and the audiences that fit such goals. The session will draw on participant input in their prior experiences and plans for future publication.
Date: 12.02, Thursday: 11-14