Foreign students

General information on PhD program in Law

Applications for admission to the Ph.D. in Law at the University of Strasbourg will be available starting on June 1^st 2020.

A thesis may be written in French, English or German, upon authorization by the Director of the Doctoral School. A thesis may be written in another language only if a Joint international supervision of the thesis is concluded (joint supervision has to be undertaken as a cotutelle with a formal contract signed between the two research institutions. Applicants need a supervisor in both universities and are expected to share their time between the two institutions).

If the thesis is not written in French, the Ph. D. candidate is required to write a substantial summary (around 10%) of the thesis in French.

Funding

In order to become eligible for admission and enrol as a PhD candidate, you must first have secured funding that covers both living costs and the costs relating to the research project for the entire doctoral training period. This could be a university or governmental fellowship or another external funding source.

Please note that admission is only possible after you have documented sufficient funding to cover the costs relating to the doctoral training period, or have been appointed to a PhD fellowship.

Admission

In order to be admitted and enrolled as a PhD candidate at the Doctoral School in Law at the University of Strasbourg, you must meet the following requirements and have:

• the research proposal (10 pages), adding a bibliography (3 pages) to the 10 pages
• an approved educational qualification (Master’s degree or equivalent) that shows your capacity to conduct legal research
• sufficient financing for living costs and the research project
• a supervisor who is a Professor or Maître de conférences who holds an HDR (Habilitation à diriger des recherches) at the University of Strasbourg.
  You may consult the websites of the different research centers in law attached to the Doctoral school to find the list of possible supervisors. Then, click on the yearly of Unistra to get their e-mail addresses.
• an approved project description of  your thesis (10 pages) developed in cooperation with your potential supervisor(s)
• a certificate of funding (work contract, professional card, declaration on the honour for family support, credit...)
• a birth certificate (in French or in English)

Admission is dependent on your being selected on the basis of your merits as a student, your work experience, publications and project description.

All documents must be transmitted between 1st July and 14th September 2023 at noon on the electronic application called Amethis.

Decision

When you have transmitted all documents required on the online application, the secretary checks the administrative admissibility of your file and contacts you if necessary.

Then, the doctoral school's council reviews your application and gives its opinion to the Deputy President of Research.

The Deputy President of Research decides to accept you or not as a Ph-D student, in the name of the President of University.

If you're not admitted, you receive the information by e-mail and by post.

If you're admitted, you receive the authorization only by e-mail and you can start the administrative registration.

Enrollment

If you are admitted to the Ph. D. program (the final decision of admission is given by the President of the University of Strasbourg),please follow the procedure for administrative registration (available soon).

Training agreement

Once your administrative enrollment is completed, you will be required to enter into a Training agreement with your supervisor. The conclusion of this agreement is a requirement of French law (decree of 25th May 2016 modified by decree of 26th August 2022).