Why research your PhD at IALS?
The Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS) is a unique institution, which has as its mission the promotion and support of legal research in its widest sense. At the heart of the Institute is the IALS Library – the national research library for law and one of the largest law research libraries in Europe.
Doctoral researchers will therefore benefit from a rich collection of materials on the law of the UK, Commonwealth and European countries, the USA and EU, as well as other national jurisdictions, international and comparative law. The IALS Library also manages several legal archive collections, and is at the forefront of providing digital resources and online legal research tools.
You will be provided with a wide range of support, including:
- supervision by leading experts;
- in-depth research methods training and other research training;
- the opportunity to present your research to your peers, and to benefit from comments and advice from academic colleagues in IALS and University of London colleges;
- participation in the research student-run ‘PhD Master Classes’, which offer guidance from peers, recent doctoral graduates, and established academics on the practical aspects of conducting research;
- being part of a large cohort of fellow PGR students;
- engagement with our visiting fellows and associate research fellows;
- attendance at the national research training days on ‘How to Get a PhD in Law’;
- guidance on research ethics;
- opportunities to attend numerous conferences/colloquia/workshops;
- access to the IALS research student conference fund; and
- a world class (and very friendly!) library service;
For a welcome from our Director of Postgraduate Research, see here.
School of Advanced Study (SAS)
IALS is part of the School of Advanced Study at the University of London, which is the only institution in the UK that is nationally funded to promote and facilitate research in the humanities.
The nine member institutes of SAS – such as the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, the Institute of Historical Research, and the Institute of Philosophy – provide a research base for an international community of scholars, which IALS research students will be able to benefit from.
IALS research students will also be able to participate in the extensive research events organised by SAS institutes, Research Training, Fellowships, Networks and Collaborations, Digital Resources, Publication Services, and Library Resources.
SAS is also part of the Bloomsbury Postgraduate Skills Network (BSPN), a shared skills training programme. The Network enables research students in participating institutions, including UCL, Birkbeck, and SOAS, to enhance their generic research and personal transferable skills and to meet students from different institutions.
Distance Learning
IALS offers students with an appropriate topic and level of local resource the opportunity to undertake a PhD by distance learning.
More information about the distance learning option is available here.