Rethinking Legal Scholarship

Hans Micklitz (EUI)

15 October 2024, 11am-5pm, UClouvain Saint-Louis Bruxelles

Cycle Interdiscipliarités en droit

Language: English

11am-12pm: Interview with Hans Micklitz moderated by Anne-Lise Sibony. Prof. Micklitz has a knack for provocative questions about what legal researchers do. He thinks a critical approach to law is necessary but does not shy away from exercising his critical sense also towards interdisciplinary approaches. Hans Micklitz will answer questions about his own research path in European Private law first Germany and then at the European Institute in Florence, where he supervised numerous PhDs.

12.15pm-1pm - Lunch break ​

1pm-2:30pm – Presentation: Is there a European Advantage in Legal Scholarship? European legal scholarship is traditionally more doctrinal, less empirical or interdisciplinary than US legal scholarship. This is sometimes cause for an inferiority complex. Should it be? 

This presentation will offer an update on the chapter A European Advantage in Legal Scholarship? (from Part II - Should Doctrinal Legal Scholarship Be Abandoned?) of Van Gestel, R., Micklitz, H., & Rubin, E. (Eds.). (2017), Rethinking Legal Scholarship: A Transatlantic Dialogue. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Participants are invited to read this chapter and, if time permits, the introductory chapter to the same book.

2:30pm-3pm - Coffee break

3pm-5pm Discussion: your positioning

Participants are invited to share their own questions about their research positioning: how did you build (or struggle to build) a critical stance towards the legal development you analyse? Participants are invited to link their question to the above chapter (Is there a European Advantage in Legal Scholarship?) but this is not mandatory. 

Participants are invited to prepare a 5 min opening statement (in EN or FR) to explain their question about positioning and give some context. Those who are new to questioning how to position oneself as a researcher may want to read from L. Kestermont, Handbook on Legal Methodology (Intersentia, 2018). 

Doctoral students wishing to benefit from Hans Micklitz' advice will submit a short text (2000 words maximum) explaining their question about their positioning. 

Proposals should be sent by email to Hans Micklitz (Hans.Micklitz@eui.eu)  before October 10th, 2024. The text (maximum 2000 words) should be attached to the e-mail in Word format.

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> Register

(Registration closes on October 10th, 2024)

Location

To access Room P61, enter via the main entrance: Bd du Jardin Botanique 43 1000 Brussels.

Take the lift to the 4th floor.

As you exit the lift, on your right, cross the terrace, enter the Club House (cafeteria) and exit through the second door on the right (next to the water dispenser).