Research Study at Aberdeen

Generally:
Our Office:
law-pg-enquiries@abdn.ac.uk

Director of PhD Programme:
Dr Peter Cserne
[peter.cserne@abdn.ac.uk]

Deputy Director of PhD Programme:
Dr Rossana Ducato
[rossana.ducato@abdn.ac.uk]

Administrative Director:
Miss Natalie Murray
[natalie.murray@abdn.ac.uk ]

Our School of Law has developed five focal Research Centres:

• Research Centre for Commercial Law

• Research Centre for Constitutional and Public International Law

• Research Centre for Energy Law

• Research Centre for Private International Law

• Research Centre for Scots Law

Each of these Research Centres invites PhD students to join them as full members, so you can be engaged in our research from the very first day on campus.

While we have five Research Centres, in a recent survey of research activities of our faculty and scholars, it was found that research was being undertaken in dozens of legal specialty areas:

1. Adjectival Law/Civil Procedure
2. Admiralty Law/Maritime Law
3. Animal Welfare Law
4. Art Law
5. Canon Law
6. Chinese Law
7. Commercial Law
8. Comparative Law
9. Copyright Law
10. Corporate Law
11. Criminal Justice
12. Criminal Law
13. Data Security & Privacy Law
14. Energy Law
15. Environmental Law
16. EU Law,
17. French Law
18. German Law
19. Information Technology (IT) Law
20. Intellectual Property (IP) Law
21. International Commercial Law
22. International Economic Law
23. International Family Law
24. International Tax Law
25. Japanese Law
26. Korean Law
27. Law & Economics/Law & Mathematics
28. Legal History
29. Legal Philosophy
30. Legal Theory
31. Medical Law
32. Natural Resources Law
33. Oil & Gas Law
34. Private International Law
35. Private Law (Obligations, Land Law, Family Law)
36. Public International Law
37. Public Law (of the UK)
38. Public Law
39. Real Property/Immovables/Land Law
40. Renewable Energy Law
41. Sales Law
42. Scots Land Law
43. Scots Law
44. Scots Private Law
45. Scottish Legal History
46. Social Choice Theory
47. Succession
48. Tax Law
49. Turkish Law

There is such a large range of research going on, and we often also have exciting visiting professors, that we can support most legal topics with a strong portfolio of experts to serve as PhD advisers.

In the first year, the seminars provide a broad range substantive, methodological, and professional training for PGR students. The teaching goal of the seminars is to provide first-year PGR students with a range of educational materials and training experiences to better enable successful outcomes in their PGR programme. 

Here is a typical list of the types of seminars offered during the two semesters of training:

• First Camp Session
  • Research Originality and Literature Reviews
  • Dissertation Writing
  • Comparative Law and Research Methodology
  • Major Concepts of Jurisprudence
  • History of Scots Law
• Second Camp Session
  • Int'l Public Law: Oceans & Offshore
  • Int'l Public Law: States & Onshore Issues
  • Evolution of Canon Law
  • Evolution of Civil Law
  • Evolution of Common Law
  • Comparative Civil and Common Law
  • Methodologies of Legal Research
• Third Camp Session
  • Methodologies for Legal Research
  • Formal Models for Law (L&E, SCT, PCT)
  • Core Research Concepts of Obligations
  • Survey of Constitutional Theory
  • Survey of Corporate Governance Research
  • Survey of IP Law
  • Survey of Int'l Arbitration Law
  • International Energy Law
  • International Environmental Law & Int’l Climate Law

Each seminar is designed to provide a wide range of substantive learning experiences and opportunities to gain practical research skills.

During the first year, students will assemble a literature survey in alignment with their research project. This will help them to ensure that their research project will make an original contribution to legal literature and to better enable them to become confident experts in their research areas.

These seminars provide a broad range of substantive, methodological, and professional training for second year PhD students. The teaching goal of the course is to provide second-year PhD students with a range of educational materials and training opportunities and experiences to better enable successful outcomes in their PhD programme. In particular, this course delivers to PhD students the skills necessary for preparing and delivering research focussed classroom teaching, for presenting at research conferences, for large hall presentations, and for public testimony at legislative or ministerial events.

Not only will this course provide the theory and understanding of excellent teaching methodologies, but it will also pair all second year PhD students to members of our faculty as they develop and prepare their courses, so that each PhD students can be mentored with real teaching experiences.

This series of seminars will train third year PhD students how to master the art of small room interviews, such as for viva voce and job interviews. These seminars build on the first two years’ worth of training to focus on intensive viva skills, interview skills, and job search skills. The seminars will also cover the theory and practice of academic CVs and how to search for an academic job are taught to better ensure post-graduation success. In this year of training, each PhD student will get to try mock job interviews and practice viva voce techniques.

Many of our students come from outside of the UK and will need visas, please find more information here about those issues: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/study/international/visa-information.php

In the School of Law, we use the University’s ‘postgraduate higher’ standards for English proficiency, find more information here: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/study/international/requirements-pg-266.php

Quick notes:

IELTS Academic scores:

• Listening - 5.5 or above
• Reading - 6.0 or above
• Speaking - 5.5 or above
• Writing - 6.0 or above
• Overall - 6.5

TOEFL iBT and Special Home Edition

• Listening - 17 or above
• Reading - 21 or above
• Speaking - 20 or above
• Writing - 21 or above
• Overall – 90

Information on our University’s academic calendar can be found here:

The application process is free, no payment is required. You will want to prepare certain documents for your application. For example, you might to have these various documents in a digital format:

• Your undergraduate and postgraduate transcripts;
• Your graduation certificates or diplomas;
• Your C.V.;
• A Research Proposal, more details below;
• Your Personal Statement on why you want to study for a PhD in Law, please limit this to two pages of A4 paper;
• Your letters of recommendation
• Examples of previous academic writing, which could include previous dissertations, theses, or published research articles;
• Other evidence of your historical excellence in research and in writing;
• Evidence of other adventures that support the idea that you can challenge yourself to overcome life’s difficulties, as PhDs are not easy to finish.

The application process is free, no payment is required. For our School of Law, you do not need to find your own PhD adviser, nor do you need to write to one of them for their support. We will develop an advising team for you once we review your application. Please do make sure that our researchers do have expertise in the subject area(s) of your research proposal.

Each application needs a rigorous research proposal. This tells us about what you want to research, why it is important that the topic be researched, and how your research will be likely to make an original contribution to the legal literature or legal science.

The full proposal should include at least the following elements:

• It is essential to include your full name on the first page of your research proposal a clear description of the proposed thesis topic, indicating the research problem and expected scope of the investigation;
• A description of how the proposed topic would be an original contribution to legal science (minimum of 1,000 words);
• A detailed literature review that evidences your awareness of the existing literature and evidences the originality of your proposed research (minimum of 2,000 words);
• A description of your preparation for this research. Have you previously studied the necessary prerequisite areas of knowledge? Have you acquired the necessary research languages, mathematical training, or other skill sets necessary to ensure the success of your project? Please be sure to evidence your preparations for your research project (minimum of 500 words);
• A description of how your research might have impact on the world at large, of how will it impact beyond the community of scholars (minimum of 500 words);
• An explanation of how you can achieve these goals within the 3-year term, including evidence of previous successfully completed research writing project(s); and
• An indication of why the School of Law at the University of Aberdeen is suited to the proposed research (e.g. staff expertise, library or archival resources).

• Please be aware that your research proposal may be passed through originality checking software.

Candidates admitted to PhD study will not be strictly bound by the proposal that accompanies their application. Its purpose is to reveal something of the applicant’s preparation and insight. During their first months of work doctoral students often adjust their proposals in consultation with their advisors and in conjunction with the research training offered by the School.

We strongly welcome students who need alternative pathways to a PhD in Law. Please consider our options and their combinations!

We have a rigorous on-campus program that includes training and seminars across all three years of the PhD experience. First year seminars cover a wide array of substantive legal specialities, training in various research methodologies, and exposure to a variety of legal traditions, cultures, and histories. Second year seminars focus on training each PhD student to become an excellent teach and public speaker, with integration into active courses so that the PhD students can learn in real-time from our own faculty as they lead on courses. Third year seminars focus on interview skills, as needed for both the viva voce (‘dissertation defence’) and for job searches. Through-out this year process, we also provide each student with at least two advisers to guide the student on their personal research projects.

We also offer an off-campus version of our PhD programme. This is a programme designed for researchers with established publication records or those with strong evidence of legal research and writing skills, so that they can become successful with less day-to-day guidance. This is not an online programme per se, but rather a more traditional approach wherein the PhD student and their advisers agree to their own modes of communication and meetings, which could engage a wide array of technology choices. The off-campus students are invited to our on-campus training whenever feasible for the student and will have full access to our online training and supports, same as the on-campus students.

We also offer the PhD programme on a part-time basis, because sometimes life doesn’t take a break when you need one.

And most importantly, we can ‘change gears’ to coordinate with you as life changes. You can start full-time and later convert to part-time, or vice versa. You might start on-campus and finish off-campus. You might start off-campus part-time and come on-campus fulltime. The options and flexibility are designed to enable a wider range of students needs and circumstances. Be sure to contact us if you are not sure which path is best for you!

Once you apply, and once your portfolio of documents passes initial screening and data entry, we will handle each application by a multi-stage process that invites experts in the research proposal’s specialty area to review and advise on the overall application. That panel’s advice will be reviewed by our School in its consideration to admit. Often, we will request a video interview with the applicant to learn more about their research and career goals. Once we make an admission decision, we create an advising team for the incoming student. We do take student requests for specific advisers into our considerations, but we also balance out other issues as we make those advising team decisions.