PhD course in Comparative Law and Comparative Legal Methods
PhD-candidate? In this course you can learn the skills necessary to build a comparative legal method tailored to your dissertation thesis.
Hovedinnhold
The course will be held at Solstrand Hotel in Bergen, 17 - 19 September. Through workshops and discussions with other candidates and professors you will depen your understanding of comparative legal methods, concepts, and theories, and gain the practical skills necessary to apply legal comparative perspectives in your specific research project.
Course description and target group
Comparative perspectives in legal dissertations are highly valuable - and even essential - in the contemporary legal landscape. Supranational societal challenges demand increased knowledge of foreign, supranational, and international law. In response, legal research is increasingly being conducted across traditional legal fields, national borders, and sectors, as well as in collaboration with other disciplines. Today, most legal dissertations, also those aiming at a legal doctrinal analysis of domestiv law, include comparative perspectives.
As a participant, your needs and research interests will determine the topics and approaches explored during this course. You will engage with experts in comparative law to discuss the purpose, objectives, and methodologies of legal comparison based on your project. This will, in turn, provide you with the skills and confidence to develop your own comparative method, tailor-made to the needs and purposes of your thesis.
Course outline
The course invites you to reflect on comparative legal concepts and methods, and how these can be applied to your dissertation, both before, and after the course.
Preparatory stage (mandatory): The facilitate discussions tailored to the individual projects of the participants, successful applicants will be expected to write a short reflection paper (maximum 3 pages) (will be published soon) on, among other things, how and why comparative analyses or perspectived might contribute to answering their research question. To help guide this reflection, a list of mandatory reading, consisting of selected advanced introductions to comparative law will be made accessible on this website. The paper must be submitted to zoe.norden@student.uib.no no later than 15 August 2025.
Seminar (physical attendance is mandatory): The course will take place over two days at Solstrand Hotel. Participants will engage in smaller group activities and discussions based on and related to the selected concepts and methods in their reflection papers, led by instructors who have read said papers.
Post-course work (voluntary): After the course, participants can submit an optional text, either reflecting on what they have learned in the course or a (draft of a) chapter or part of their dissertation with comparative legal analysis. The course instructors will provide feedback on the submitted text. The Norwegian Association for Comparative Law offers to publish contributions related to legal comparisons or reflections on comparative methods.
The course will be conducted in English, reflecting the highly international nature of this research field. The course is currently taught by researchers with affiliations from three Nordic countries.
Deadline for the mandatory pre-workshop assignment: 15 August 2025.
Practical information
The course will take place at the Solstrand Hotel, located just outside Bergen. Accommodation for two nights (Wednesday to Friday) and all meals from breakfast on Thursday, 18 September, to coffee after lunch on Friday, 19 September, are funded by the project.
Round-trip between Bergen or Bergen Airport (Flesland) and Solstrand is also funded by the project.
Participants must pay for their travel to and from Bergen/Bergen Airport and any accommodation before/after the course.
How to apply
The course is fully booked. We no longer accept applications.
Please contact Anna Nylund, Professor (anna.nylund@uib.no) or Sören Koch, Professor (soren.koch@uib.no) if you have any further questions.
Programme
Wednesday 17. September
Venue: Solstrand hotel
From 15:00: Check-in
18:00: Lobby meet-up for those who wish to dine together (on your own account)
21:00: Informal gathering at the hotel
18. September
Venue: Solstrand hotel
Breakfast
09:00 – 09:15 Welcome by Professor Anna Nylund and Sören Koch (University of Bergen)
09:15 – 09:45 Introduction of the participants and lecturers
09:45 – 10:15 Welcome to the jungle by Professor Jaakko Husa (University of Helsinki)
10:15 - 10:30 Discussion
Break
11:00 – 11:30 Benefits of actively using comparative perspectives in PhD-thesis – some guiding remarks by Professor Sören Koch (University of Bergen)
12:00 – 12:30 Conducting comparative research in the field of family law by Professor Jens Martin Scherpe (Aalborg University)
11:45 – 12:00 Discussion
Lunch
13:30 – 15:45 Tutorial session 1:3 presentations per group - comments and discussions in 5 groups
Break
16:00 – 16:30 Comparative law, courts, and conflicts by Professor Anna Nylund (University of Bergen)
16:30 – 17:00 Discussion
19:00 Dinner
21:00 Informal gathering
19. September
Venue: Solstrand hotel
Breakfast
09:00 – 09:30 AI as a research assistant in comparative law – possibilities and pitfalls by Associate Professor Lana Bubalo (University of Stavanger)
09:30 - 09:45 Discussion
Break
10:00 – 11:30 Tutorial session 2: 2 presentations per group - comments and discussions in 5 groups
Break
11:50 – 12:30 Discussion based on questions arising from the group discussions
Lunch
13:30 – 14:45 Discussions continue
14:45 - 15:00 Evaluation and wrap up
15:15 Bus to Bergen Airport and Bergen City Center
About the lecturers
Prof. Jaakko Husa Jaakko is Professor in Law and Globalisation at the University of Helsinki. He is a Titular Member of the International Academy of Comparative Law and a Member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters. Currently he serves as the President of the Finnish Committee for Comparative Law. |
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University of Helsinki/Veikko Somerpuro
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Prof. Jens Martin Scherpe Scherpe is Professor of Comparative Law at Aalborg University and founding director of the Nordic Centre for Comparative and International Family Law (NorFam). Until August 2022, he was Professor of Comparative Law at the University of Cambridge. His main research interests currently are in comparative family law. |
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Privat.
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Associate Prof. Lana Bubalo Bubalo is Associate Professor of Law at the University of Stavanger, School of Business and Law, Norway. Her research interests include tort law, protection of personality rights, comparative law, and law and technology. |
Foto/ill.:
Marie Von Krogh / UiS
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Prof. Anna Nylund Nylund is Professor of Procedural Law at the University of Bergen, Norway. She specialises in comparative civil procedure, alternative dispute resolution, family dispute resolution, and children's participation rights. |
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Eivind Senneset
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Prof. Sören Koch Koch is Professor of Law at the University of Bergen, Norway and Chair of the Norwegian Association of Comparative Law. European Comparative Law Association and the European Law Institute. In the newly established Center for Climate Change, Energy and Environmental Law at the University of Bergen, he co-chairs the pillar on Judicial Innovation and Comparative Studies. Koch is the leader of the Reseach group on Legal Culture, Legal History and Comparative Law at the University of Bergen. |
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Universitetet i Bergen
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The course is arranged by the Research group for Legal Culture, Legal History and Comparative Law, Faculty of Law, University og Bergen. The course is part of the project International Hub of Excellence for Legal Cultural and Comparative Legal Studies (KULTKOM) founded by the Research Council og Norway.