Professor with special responsibilities Andrej Savin
Department of Business Humanities and Law, CBS

Professor with special responsibilities Jan Trzaskowski
Department of Business Humanities and Law, CBS

Professor Søren Sandfeld Jakobsen
Department of Business Humanities and Law, CBS

Aims and objectives

This course is aimed at PhD students who either work with a topic in digital regulation/IT law/Internet law or otherwise need good methodological grounding in EU IT law. The latter can be particularly relevant in projects concerning the interface between law & technology, privacy and data protection or management of IT systems but also political sciences or sociology.

The course is designed for two purposes.

First, to give a thorough understanding of the dogmatic legal method as applied to EU digital regulation. In this sense, the interpretation of primary and secondary sources, case law and soft law guidance relevant in the digital world will be put in focus. In addition to this, comparative method and EU method in general will be addressed and so will the challenges of multidisciplinary research.

Second, the course seeks to improve candidates’ research strategies in light of their project aims. In this sense, the course will look at how sources and methods influence the structure of the paper and how arguments should be constructed based on the interpretation of preparatory documents (historical interpretation), the understating of the political processes behind EU digital laws and the work of the enforcement agencies. The course looks at (re)building research strategies around participants’ actual topics in a feedback session.

Learning objectives

At the end of the course, the students should be able to:

Structure and format

The course is designed to provide a thorough understanding of the main methodologies used in researching EU digital regulation and to teach students how to develop research strategies including situations where multidisciplinary research is involved. The course consists of 3 days with 3 2-hours sessions each and a final day of project presentations.

The course uses presentations, facilitated discussion and workshops. Students’ projects are used as a point of reference in the course.

The first part looks at the main methodological challenges at working with EU digital regulation. The multiplicity of sources will be dealt with as a presentation with reference to participants’ projects. This is followed by a facilitated discussion dealing with digital policy and methods for incorporating it into PhD research. This is followed by the sessions on CJEU as a creator of law and on methodologies for working with secondary law. Multidisciplinary methods are looked at in the form of a presentation and discussion.

The part on research strategy consists in the workshop on examples of incorporating data analytics, interviews, etc. into legal research. This is followed by a session on the strategy and management perspectives (law & management approach) in legal research and a whole day of PhD project presentations, feedback and discussions.

Class preparation

A 3-4 page summary of your project including the idea, the research question, the description and a table of contents with a brief description of each chapter. To be sent 1 week before the start.

A 1-page explanation of the method(s) you use and how they help answer the problem you are trying to answer to be posted at the same time but as a separate document. 

Exam and evaluation

Take-home exam is given at the end of the course (posted on Canvas) to assess the preparedness for the topics discussed in class. The format is a 5-page paper of standard text. The paper is due within 2 weeks after the course at the latest. 

A Pass/Fail grade will be based on the timely submission and quality of the oral presentation in the last session and the final exam. A passing grade on all the course assignments (i.e., the project profile and the five reading summaries uploaded to CANVAS) is a prerequisite for taking the exam. 

Program and readings          

Day 1 - Research Method I

9-11 Method and Sources:          

Understanding the EU Regulatory Environment - presentation                        

Presentation of the methods for dealing with the multitude of EU sources, strategies for deciding on their relevance and for incorporating them.             

11-13 Working with Sources I:        

Understanding and Working With EU Digital Policy facilitated discussion        

Discussion on methods for working with digital policy based on participants’ projects and assigned material.

13-14 Lunch

14-16 Working with Sources II:         

Working with CJEU Judgments, From Law to Court Interpretation  

Presentation on the importance of CJEU case law in digital regulation and discussion on research strategies for working with them. 

Day 2 Research Method II

9-11 Working With Sources III:       

Working With Secondary Sources, Policy Papers, Impact Assessments etc.   

Workshop on using secondary sources in PhD research with particular accent on impact assessments, white papers and other policy documents. 

11-13 Multidisciplinary method:      

EU law, national law, comparative law, behavioural sciences, law & economics presentation and facilitated discussion                                           

Presentation on working with different legal methods. Facilitated discussion based on multidisciplinary aspects of participants’ papers.

13-14 Lunch

Research Strategy I

14-16 The use of Statistics, Interviews, Data-Based Analysis etc. workshop

Workshop on incorporating statistical and other quantitative data and using interviews. Working with and collaborating with national and EU enforcement agencies on topics from their jurisdiction.

Day 3  Research Strategy II

9-10  Law & Management, Law & Strategy Approach in PhD studies presentation

10-12  Composing a PhD: Working With Structure in a Multidisciplinary Context

Facilitated discussion based on test cases. 4-5 monographs will be looked at and the strategic research choices analysed. 

12-13 Lunch

14-16 Writing papers in EU IT Law or a Related Subject presentation

Discussion on publishing strategies during a after PhD.

Research Strategy III

Day 4 Feedback Session – Project Presentations

Literature      

Mandatory reading

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3979053&dgcid=ejournal_htmlemail_cbs:law:legal:studies:research:paper:series_abstractlink#

EU Materials and related articles

·       2001 E-Commerce Directive

·       2022 Digital Services Act

·       2022 Digital Markets Act

·       Proposed AI Act

Be prepared to discuss:

Format

The course takes place over 4 days, 9am-4pm, with three sessions each day.

The format is a combination of presentations, facilitated discussion and project presentations.

Course fee

For PhD students from the JurForsk institutions Jurforsk and JurforskNordic or Høgskolen i Sørøst-Norge the course fee will be 1000 DKK which covers food & beverages during the course days and one dinner.

CBS PhD students (incl. Law students) and other students not enrolled at the JurForsk institutions Jurforsk and JurforskNordic or Høgskolen i Sørøst-Norge will be charged the full course fee of 5200 DKK.