Basic course: Transnational Law – Theories and Research Methods
12-13 January 2016
Info about event
Time
Location
Aarhus University, Department of Law
Purpose
Law can be either national (prescribed by national legislators and applied within geographical boundaries of the particular state) or international (agreed upon by states and applied on states). Is that really so? While the distinction between national and international law, based on the Westphalian model, represents the basic model to understand and explain current legal orders, the idea of transnational law has been emerging for decades now. We all have a certain understanding of the term. But what is it really? How well does it fit within our current legal systems? Or is it a new legal system altogether? And how do we conduct research in transnational topics and law, or use it to explain the development of our legal orders?
The purpose of this course is to offer PhD students and researchers an overview of transnational law
- as a distinct group of legal theories,
- as a method of research into how law develops and how different legal systems affect each other, and
- as a field of research.
Learning objectives
After participating in the course, the students will be able to:
- critically read and assess literature on transnational law;
- explain and apply transnational law theories in their research projects;
- design a theoretically sound research enquiry in transnational law issues; and
- choose appropriate methods for conducting research in transnational law or choose transnational law as a tool to investigate related topics.
Programme
Course organizers
- International and Transnational Tendencies in Law (INTRAlaw), Department of Law, Aarhus University (http://law.au.dk/forskning/forskergrupper/intralaw/)
- Corporate Social Responsibility Legal Research Network (http://law.au.dk/forskning/projekter/csr-lrn/)
Preparation
The participants are required to send a three page summary of their research project (or eventually a chapter they are working on) by 4th January 2016. They should specifically focus on answering the question how do they approach and use transnational law in their project: as a theory, as a method, as a field of research?
Those participants that will present on the first day should send a 5-7 pages summary of their project, a chapter of their thesis or any other work in progress they want to discuss.
Furthermore, there will be assigned reading material for the course (ca. 200 pages) with specific questions to some of the readings that will be discussed in the different sessions.
The students are required to read all the project summaries and the selected articles.
ECTS
2 ECTS for participation / 3 ECTS for participation with presentation during the first day
Registration
Please register by e-mail with Cita Kristensen (cita@law.au.dk) before 10 December 2015.
If you want to present during the first day, please, mark that in the registration. If we have more than four students, who want to present, we will give priority to those who signed up earlier.
Contact/Course coordinators
Katerina Peterkova, Postdoctoral fellow, INTRAlaw, katpe@law.au.dk
Amin Alavi, Associate professor, INTRAlaw, amal@law.au.dk