For fisrt year students, during the first quarter of the academic year 2025-2026, the following mandatory face-to-face training activities will be scheduled:

  1. Students will receive two doctoral courses, taught by a professors of recognized international prestige (13h+13h).
     
  2. Three methodological sessions will be conducted by professors from the Law Department (6h), one of which will be devoted to the elaboration of the research project.

 

1.1. Doctoral Course: "The EU Constitution in Time of War"

Imparted by Federico Fabbrini.

Dates: 21st, 22nd, 23rd and 24th of October.

 

 

University of origin: Dublin City University (Ireland)

 

The course explores the European Union (EU) legal and constitutional order following Russia’s aggression of Ukraine. The return of large-scale conventional warfare on the European continent for the first time since the end of WWII posed an existential challenge for the EU, shattering illusions of perpetual peace and forcing the EU to face the reality of hard power. After contextualizing the EU’s historical development and institutional functioning, the course examines the EU legal responses to the war in Ukraine. It explains how the policy tools developed during this existential crisis led to the consolidation of an EU fiscal capacity and emergence of military capabilities, but highlights also the challenges that remain outstanding. By doing so, the course zooms on the two most important areas of EU law and policy today, namely Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP), dealing with foreign affairs and defense, and Economic & Monetary Union (EMU), dealing with fiscal policy. Finally, the course reflects on the prospects for further EU integration – notably EU enlargement to Ukraine and treaty changes – and discusses scenario for transatlantic relations at a time of US disengagement.

The course, which is specifically designed for graduate students, embraces a comparative, interdisciplinary and policy perspective designed to facilitate and enrich learning about European integration and transatlantic relations. The course builds on my 3 books “The EU Constitution in Time of War: Legal Responses to Russia’s Aggression against Ukraine” (Oxford University Press 2025), “EU Fiscal Capacity: Legal Integration after Covid-19 and the War in Ukraine” (Oxford University Press, 2022) and “Brexit and the Future of the EU” (Oxford University Press, 2020) and draws from my policy experience in EU affairs, as advisor to several EU institutions (including the European Commission, Parliament and Eurogroup Presidency) on the future of Europe.

 

1.2. Doctoral Course: "The law of digitization in the EU (with a special focus on health administrative law in the European Administrative Union)

Impartit per Fruzsina Molnár-Gábor.

Dates: from Monday to Thursday from November 10th to 20th

Hours: from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. 

 

University of origin: Universität Heidelberg (Germany)

Data and information serve as the basis for administrative action and administrative decisions. The development of the administration into an information and communication network means that public authorities can increasingly profile themselves as users of the growing availability of data, both as an opportunity and as a prerequisite for their actions and decisions. In this role, public authorities are addressees of data protection regulations, as they process personal data as controllers or processors. On the one hand, the application of data protection provisions requires organizational measures, and on the other hand, the general data protection regulation of the EU was recently expanded to include sector-specific regulations on the processing of personal data. In particular, these new, diverse EU legal requirements create new administrative actors who are entrusted with various legal options and obligations for processing personal data in compliance with data protection law.

In addition, the administrative actors are not only the addressees of data protection regulations, but also monitor whether private bodies comply with data protection regulations. The introduction of these new players represents both a challenge for the increase in the number of authorities and supervisory structures as well as a development potential for the further differentiation of cooperation networks in the European administrative network. Their structuring, the definition and delimitation of their responsibilities, powers, tasks and cooperation is a complex issue of administrative organization. Cross-border networking and cooperation between administrative authorities is at the heart of the creation of European data spaces.

The course will examine these issues using the example of recent developments in European legislation on digitalization with a particular focus on the healthcare sector. The course invites students who are interested in various legal disciplines. In addition to classic administrative law topics such as administrative organization law, criminal law and international law references will also be examined. The course material will be developed specifically for the course and made available at the beginning of the lecture.

 

2.1. Legal Methodology

Taught by Pompeu Fabra University faculty:

2.2. Research Project

Research Project Guidelines

Schedule:

The research project must be submitted by the 14th of May 2026. Later submissions will not be accepted.

The oral defense of the research project will be carried out during the first half of June corresponding to the academic year.

The defense of the research project will be done in person and only in exceptional cases the student will be able to defend his work online. 

In order to defend the research project online, the student must request it to the PhD secretary, at least one month in advance of the submission deadline (May 14th, 2026).

The evaluation will be “not satisfactory” when you fail to present the research project or you do not pass it. Doctoral students will then be allowed to defend their research project again within a period of six months. Students who fail the second assessment will be dismissed from the doctoral program.

Throughout the year, other mandatory training activities will be carried out:

  1. In each of the first two doctoral courses students will have to attend a minimum of 5 seminars of their free choice, organized within the UCA of Law (10 h. + 10 h.). In order to accredit this attendance it will be necessary to provide the information indicated in the following form.
     
  2. In the third quarter of the year a doctoral conference will be organized to allow students to present some aspect of their research work and at the same time discuss and exchange ideas with the rest of the doctoral students in the program.