PHD program

Sciences Po Law School offers an ambitious doctoral program, located in the Sciences Po School of Research. Doctoral candidates are encouraged to pursue critical and rigorous research in various fields of law to amass technical as well as theoretical knowledge. Our doctoral candidates are well-versed in diverse methods and perspectives, open to multidisciplinary approaches to law, as well as to diverse legal cultures. To achieve this goal, we encourage doctoral candidates to seek knowledge of techniques, concepts, and fundamental means of legal reasoning; rigorous and critical approaches to the tools used to theorize law; and a comparative and global point of view on legal subjects. These tools and modes of reasoning are encouraged to stimulate vigorous, innovative and pertinent research.

An outsanding curriculum

This program admits a very small number of students each year, to allow doctoral candidates excellent research facilities. Doctoral candidates receive attentive supervision from members of the permeant faculty, but also guidance from an elaborate network of affiliate and visiting professors through strong and frequent collaborations with prestigious partner universities (including Harvard Law School, McGill Law School, Kyoto School of Law, etc). We also encourage our doctoral students to teach and develop their own classes to complement their research through practical experience in the classroom. 

Alongside our doctoral candidates and permanent faculty, our Law School houses many visiting doctoral candidates and visiting professors, thereby offering a unique network of academics who continue to engage in stimulating interactions, through seminars, workshops, roundtables and discussions.

Excellent conditions for research

The program provides PhD candidates excellent research facilities (workstation, access to Sciences Po library, etc). PhD candidates also benefit from financial support (financial support for the three years of the PhD curriculum). Academic events at the Law School are extremely accessible and students enrolled in the program are regularly associated to the scientific events organized by SPLS scientific community (workshops, seminars...).

The language of the program is either French or English. Fluency in either of these languages is required.

One year is spent in partner universities

Most of the students will spend a year of the program abroad to pursue his/her research and discover other theoretical approaches developed in partner universities. The partner universities are among the best universities for research in law.

Testimonials

Contact us

Vincent Forray, Doctoral Program Director  
vincent.forray@sciencespo.fr

Claire Rameau, Administrative Officer
claire.rameau@sciencespo.fr