faculty of law
ggsl
Masterclass Law and Governance
Day, time and place
Tuesday 24 April 2012, 12.15 – 18:00 with drinks directly after the masterclass
USVA Building, Munnekeholm 10, 9711 JA Groningen
Teacher
 Prof. Aurelia Colombi Ciacchi, Groningen Centre for Law and Governance
Theme(s)
Governance can be intended as decision- and policy-making within a group of persons
or within an institution, or within a system of institutions. It can be exercised by public
authorities (public governance), private actors (private governance), or public
authorities and private actors together (public-private governance).
Governance is not a synonym for “regulation”. Firstly, not all what can be regulated can
also be governed in the sense of governance. We can only govern societies, societal
groups, collective entities and human relationships in general. Secondly, governance
can be performed through other means than regulation, such as pure politics or more
informal deliberative processes.
Potentially, every field of law and regulation can be explored in a law-and-governance
perspective. The distinctive character does not consist in the pertinence to a specific
subtheme, but in the approach followed. This approach must be different from the
traditional dogmatic analysis of legal rules in a purely juridical context. A law-andgovernance perspective sheds light on the policy dimension(s) of the law, the socioeconomic goals to be achieved, the public and private interests involved, and the ways
to balance them.
One possible way to look at phenomena of law and regulation in a governance
perspective is to classify them along four relationships between law and governance: (1)
governance as law, (2) governance in the law, (3) governance through law and (4)
governance against the law. Examples will be provided in the masterclass with
reference to the themes for your dissertation research.
The masterclass focuses on the relevance of the themes for your dissertation research.
Therefore, we ask you to answer the following questions.
Core questions
1. What are the Law and Governance aspects of my research?
2. In which way are the themes of Law and Governance involved?
3. Which practical, methodological and substantive questions arise when exploring
this?
4. Which distinct choices can be made when answering these questions?
5. Which choice fits the objectives of my research best?
Teaching objectives of the Masterclass
 Explain in which way Law and Governance play a part in my own dissertation
research;
 Explain which questions arise in my own dissertation research when exploring this;
 Make an overview of the major approaches to tackle these questions;
 Substantiate which choice fits the objectives of my dissertation research best.
1›3
faculty of law
ggsl
Course planning
The masterclass will be arranged as a seminar or a tutorial, in which the attention will
be focused on ‘one’s own dissertation research’ and the ‘interaction’ with teacher(s) and
other PhD researchers in an informal setting. PhD researchers should in short explain
what they are doing and which questions arise, after which the teachers and the other
participants will provide them with feedback. The course planning is based on 9
participants. If more people are interested in participating in the masterclass, we will
start earlier. We allow up to 15 participants (first come, first served). PhD researchers
have precedence, but if there are less than 15 PhD’s participating then researchmaster
students may be admitted. The language of communication is English.
Explanation to the course planning
The teacher will start the course with a short advanced introduction to Law and
Governance. After that, the PhD researchers will in turn present the questions the
themes pose on their own dissertation research, after which the teachers and the other
participants will comment on the issues presented. At the latest one week before the
masterclass, each PhD researcher shall submit a paper (max. 2 A4’s) with a short
description of the following information:
 Title of the dissertation research;
 Objectives and central research questions of the dissertation research;
 Description of the relevance of the themes for one’s own research;
 Overview of the most important questions and issues;
 Possible choices in answering these questions.
The PhD researcher explains to the audience which questions arise and in what way the
questions could be answered. Reading from paper is not allowed. After the
presentation, the teachers will give their comments first, and accordingly the other
participants.
Note 1: The teachers will take the contents of the papers of the participants into account
when deciding about which parts of the theme to focus on during the masterclass.
Note 2: During the presentations it is allowed to take coffee and tea (because otherwise
we would have to include too many breaks).
Time schedule:
12:15 – 13:00
13:00 – 13:45
13:45 – 14:45
14.45 – 15.00
15:00 – 16:00
16:00 – 16:15
16:15 – 17:15
17:15 – 17.30
17.30 – 18:00
18:00 – …
2›3
Lunch
Introductory remarks by the teacher(s)
Short presentations of three PhD researchers, followed by
feedback by the teachers and the participants (15 to 20 min. per
PhD researcher)
Coffee/Tea Break
Continuation of the presentations (three PhD researchers)
Coffee/Tea Break
Continuation of the presentations (three PhD researchers)
Coffee/Tea Break
Review and summary by the teacher(s)
Drinks
faculty of law
Important dates
31 January 2012
21 February 2012
22 February 2012
16 April 2012
24 April 2012
3›3
ggsl
Announcement of the Masterclass Law and Governance and start
of the application as participant by email to Joop Houtman
([email protected])
Application deadline
Notification of admittance to the participants of the masterclass
Deadline submission of papers (max. 2 A4’s)
Submit to Joop Houtman ([email protected])
Masterclass Law and Governance.