Dottorato in Scienze Giuridiche

The program provides doctoral candidates with the tools to understand legal systems, as reshaped by the processes of Europeanization and internationalization of law, and offers highly specialized training in the relevant scientific-disciplinary fields. This is achieved through critical analysis and careful examination of doctrinal approaches and the solutions adopted by domestic and supranational case law, also with a comparative perspective.
The PhD in Legal Sciences further aims to develop a multidisciplinary training pathway focused on the evolutionary dynamics of Western and European legal systems, with particular attention to the transition from their traditional contexts of reference to those emerging within the scenarios of globalized post-modernity.
In fostering the advancement of knowledge in the legal field, the program intends to carry out teaching and research activities with a multidisciplinary orientation, while also giving due consideration to interdisciplinary dialogue on new legal issues that today demand the attention of scholars.
Studies on legal change connected to technological innovation processes follow a multidisciplinary path, with an in-depth examination of the legal issues related to the transition towards a sustainable development model. Within a framework that encourages interaction among multiple legal perspectives, the training will also highlight the multidisciplinary relevance of the principles of equal opportunity, non-discrimination, and gender equality. In addition, language enhancement courses are offered, designed to engage doctoral candidates in reflection on the “Challenges of the Third Millennium for the Protection of Rights in the Digital and Ecological Transition”.
The research results are already the subject of collective and interdisciplinary publications by the doctoral candidates.
A course in Legal Informatics is offered in order to provide them with IT skills and knowledge.
Doctoral candidates are also invited to participate in meetings and debates on the Code of Conduct for the protection of the dignity of those who work and study at the University of Messina, since respect for and full implementation of ethical principles and values, together with legal rules, contribute to the integrity of research.
In line with the sustainable development goals identified by the United Nations General Assembly in the 2030 Agenda, research lines and third mission activities are developed both on the Goals and the Targets of the Agenda.
The training and cultural enrichment of doctoral candidates is furthered through the sharing and practice of scientific dialogue. The faculty board of the PhD program promotes the coordination of their activities by organizing meetings and debates in which doctoral candidates discuss their research topics. In addition, a calendar of conferences, seminars, and lectures—including those held in foreign languages and by visiting professors—is established.

Considering that the Department of Law has been selected by ANVUR among the Departments of Excellence for the five-year period 2023–2027, a curriculum in English has been activated on “Legal goods and social inequalities”.
The program, which addresses the broad theme of the conceptual framework and regulation of legally relevant goods characterized by a clear social impact, is focused on advanced research with a distinct international outlook. It explores the concrete possibilities of access to environmental, cultural, digital (including the acquisition of new forms of knowledge linked to ICT), and bio-economic goods. The aim is to capture their legal configuration through a markedly social and relational interpretative approach, in order to reveal their capacity to foster complex relationships among subjects belonging to different cultures and social groups, taking the Euro-Mediterranean area as a reference point, where disparities in access to goods of fundamental legal relevance are particularly pronounced.

The objective of the doctoral program is therefore the identification of innovative legal models which, taking into account the current specific configuration of the aforementioned goods and the legal regimes in force, make it possible to envisage overcoming inequalities in access to resources that contribute to the full development of the human person in the twenty-first century, within a framework of use inspired by the principles of sustainability and social justice.