(image source: Wikimedia Commons)
The Institute of European and Comparative
Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford, is running the second year of
its Research Masterclass for graduate research students working in the
Institute’s fields of European Law, Comparative Law and Competition Law in
September 2024.
What the course offers:
- 1.
12 small group seminars with
leading academics from Oxford and beyond discussing the methodology of research
in European, Comparative and Competition Law;
- 2.
Desk-space in the IECL from 2
September to 27 September;
- 3.
Research opportunities using
the University of Oxford’s library and online resources: online from 1 August
to 31 October;
- 4.
Accommodation available from Corpus
Christi College at preferential rates for 1 to 29 September (approx. £47 pppn);
- 5.
Dinner in an Oxford College and
lunches normally accompanying seminars;
- 6.
Networking opportunities with
current Oxford Graduate students: you will be paired with an Oxford student in
a similar or related field as well as being able to work with the whole cohort;
- 7.
Seminar with Nordic Doctoral
Students and the opportunity to join the Stockholm-Oxford Symposium (see
following pages)
- 8.
A certificate of completion.
Cost
The course costs £800, with accommodation to
be paid separately (College accommodation at a reduced rate is offered but not required)
and most meals are paid separately. We have kept costs down as far as possible
and are not in a position to offer fee waivers or other discounts.
Eligibility
To be eligible you must be a graduate
research student in law working on European Law, Comparative Law and/or
Competition Law. Places are limited.
How to apply
Please send a single document, describing
your research project in no more than 200 words, and a CV, in total not more
than 4 sides of A4 long (font size 12) addressed to the IECL Administrator, on administrator@iecl.ox.ac.uk as
soon as possible and no later than 4pm BST 12 April 2024. Decisions will be
taken soon after that. An offer to take part is conditional on paying the
course fee.
Note
The IECL will issue an invitation letter.
However, we cannot assist with immigration requirements or travel arrangements;
those are the responsibility of the attending student.
Further details of the structure of the
course are below. We look forward to welcoming you to Oxford!
Matthew
Dyson
Professor
of Civil and Criminal Law
Director
of the IECL
The Research Masterclass is designed to
give you space to work on your own research collaboratively and develop your
methods further through structured sessions with leading academics. Those
sessions happen three times a week over the four weeks. Each session will
involve the academic picking a piece of work, set in advance, which the
students will have access to (or a part of it), and discussing the methods
used, the decisions made, and the impact evident, from conception to
completion. While all four weeks have that basic patter, each week has an
emphasis. Outside of the seminars, participants are free to work at their desk
in the seminar room, in one of Oxford’s world-leading libraries or elsewhere.
Week 1. Research Choices: seminars focus on methodology needed before research begins.
Week 2. Research Execution: seminars focus on case studies of academics’ work.
Week 3. Research Challenges: seminars focus on problems researchers have faced.
Week 4. Research Outputs: seminars focus on writing, and presenting, research.
Academics
involved so far (subject to change)
Prof Matthew Dyson
(Comparative Law)
Prof Ariel Ezrachi
(Competition Law)
Prof Liz Fisher
(Comparative Public Law)
Prof Son Bui
(Asian Law)
Dr Johannes
Ungerer (Conflicts of Laws)
Prof Iyiola
Solanke (EU Law)
Prof Angus Johnston
(EU Law)
Prof Sanja
Bogojevic (EU Law)
Prof Birke
Haecker, Bonn (Comparative legal history)
Prof Laura
Carlson, Stockholm (Comparative law and equality law)
The learning outcomes are aimed to support
graduate research students complete their theses:
- Make progress analysing and clarifying an abstract question,
grasping and critically comparing different approaches to answering it,
and developing an approach of your own;
- Increase skills in building and taking apart complex arguments
for and against a position;
- where necessary, be able to put difficult historical texts
produced within a historical context;
- improve on constructing significant pieces of writing that
provide a clear overview of a subject and a sustained independent argument
about it, presented in a lucid, objective and scholarly manner
- advance towards excellent oral presentation;
- develop time management skills; and
- make more effective use of libraries, information technology
and other sources of information.
