Cross-Cutting Courses

COURSES, Cycle XXXIX,  A.Y. 2023-24

The Courses of the PhD Programme are the following: Global Business, Nation States and the Globalized Economy (16 hours); Governance systems and regulatory techniques in a globalised world (12 hours); Key issues in Corporate Law (10 hours); Corporate governance, sustainability and non-financial reporting (8 hours); Corporate Responses to Climate Change (8 hours); Green consumption (8 hours); The structure and the processes of organizing - Organizing for sustainability (6 hours); ESG and financial performance: the new avenue of the European Directive CSRD (6 hours); Sustainable Innovation. A managerial perspective (6 hours); Environmental, social and governance factors (ESG) Derivatives (5 hours); ESG criteria in the framework of Banking and Financial Law (4 hours); IP in Times of Radical Change (4 hours); Digital Transformation and Constitutional Challenges: Changing Legal Categories (8 hours).

The above-mentioned courses are complemented by two transdisciplinary courses: Research Methods (8 hours) and Introduction to Research (20 hours), that aim at providing the essential tools for research methodology and the distinction between different scientific approaches.

Description and goals

These courses, specifically designed for the PhD Programme in B&L, involve different areas of research and topics through an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approach. They aim at providing the PhD students with the analytical tools and interpretative methodologies that encompass both the business and the legal domains. Consequently, the PhD students will be endowed with an in-depth understanding of current complex transformation (due to today’s social, economic, political and technological challenges) of the context within which institutions and businesses interact for the optimal achievement of common goals of sustainability and social well-being. The courses are split into two Parts, with lectures distributed during the first year (February-June) and the first part of the second year (September-January) of the PhD Programme.

The cross-cutting courses are complemented by seminars (mainly held by foreign professors) that focus on specific issues or methodologies aimed at further deepening the subject-matter addressed during the lessons.

Attendance requirement

Attendance is mandatory for at least two-third of the courses.

Final assessment

Both parts of the cross-cutting courses (Part I: February-June; Part II: September-January) will be concluded with a final assessment that implies the development of two papers (for each Part): 1) a “major paper” that entails in-depth scientific research carried out with critical and distinctive methodology; 2) a “minor paper” that entails an analytical, reconstructive and systematic approach. The major and minor papers must be developed in different research domains. 

A further and separate assessment will be carried out for the interdisciplinary courses “Introduction to Research” and "Research Methods" 

Compliance with the attendance requirements as well as a positive assessment of the above-mentioned examinations is necessary for admission to the following years of the PhD Programme (see Requirements for Admission to the following years: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1o3eqkczh5TBoO9Go4N3HJ2cYBLTSkR1y/view).

PART I (February-June 2024)

PART II (September 2024 - January 2025)