The Faculty of Law offers one postgraduate programme conducted in English laguage as of the academic year 2026/2027 (“the English Programme”).

The English Programme is accredited for a standard four-year period of study which means that students are expected to fulfil all their study duties within this timeframe.

Doctoral students progress in their studies accordingly to the Individual Study Plan (ISP) created in cooperation with their supervisor at the beginning of first academic year.

Basic obligations prescribed for all Ph.D. candidates within the English Programme are as follows:

• Introduction to Law from the Perspective of Central Europe – lectures take place during the winter semester of the first year of study. This subject familiarises students not only with the Czech legal system and its principles, but also with the fundamentals of the legal systems and key legal principles of other European countries, particularly the Czech Republic’s neighbouring countries. The course concludes with an examination consisting of the assessment of an essay of at least 18,000 characters, submitted for assessment to individual lecturers as agreed with the relevant lecturer.
• Academic Writing – a course organised by the Department of Legal Skills. Attendance is compulsory for successful completion of the course; individual components of the course take place throughout the academic year (see the course description in SIS). It is recommended that students complete this course in their first year of study, and it is also recorded in the ISP for the first year of study.
• Examination in one foreign language – the choice is up to the student. Examinations are held in the following languages: French, Italian, German, Russian and Spanish. Examination dates are set on an ongoing basis; there are no language classes, and students arrange their examinations individually with the Department of Languages. Contact details for the teachers of each language can be found in the link above this section.
• Discussion on the Topic of the Dissertation – A presentation of the expanded dissertation project, a summary of results to date, and an outline of the plan for the dissertation research. The defence takes place before an examination board and concludes with a colloquium. It is recommended that students register this subject in their second year, and it must be completed within the standard duration of study. 
• Teaching in the Master ’s Study Program - This applies only to students in full-time or part-time form of study with a scholarship. The compulsory teaching load for full-time students consists of two seminars per week over a period of four to six semesters. Full-time students must therefore register eight teaching subjects in the ISP, spread over two or three years of study. For students in part-time form with a scholarship, half the standard of teaching load applies, therefore they register four teaching subjects.
• Defence of the Dissertation – a student may submit their dissertation after fulfilling all study requirements specified in the ISP. A so-called preliminary defence, or ‘mini’ defence, may also be considered in relation to a dissertation that is essentially complete but has not yet been formally submitted, in accordance with Article 75 of the Rules for the Organisation of Studies at the Faculty of Science, Charles University. This must be agreed with the supervisor.

Further mandatory ISP entries:

a) In the ‘Course of Study’ section of the ISP, full-time students must specify how their academic and research activities will be conducted, or which projects they intend to participate in. Full-time students should also submit their own project to the GA UK competition, either in their first year or, more likely, in their second year of study (in principle, a dissertation project). If the supervisor is a principal investigator on a GA ČR, TA ČR, UNCE, Primus or similar project, it is advisable for the student to become involved in these projects as well (literature reviews, assistance with preparing conference presentations, sub-research topics, etc.).

b) In the ISP, under the ‘overview of obligations’, it is also necessary to list planned academic publications, specifying the anticipated year of completion, in accordance with the requirements of the supervisor, the programme guarantor or the board of the study programme, primarily with regard to the topic of the doctoral thesis (book, book chapter, journal article – from the perspective of research evaluation, publications indexed in the Web of Science and SCOPUS databases are of the greatest significance). Students in the full-time form of study must specify at least three publications, of which at least two must be academic articles in peer-reviewed journals (the year in which these are to be completed is at the student’s discretion). Students in the part-time form of study must specify at least two publications in peer-reviewed journals.

c) In addition to publications, active participation in academic conferences is a fundamental means of presenting academic findings. Full-time students are required to attend three conferences, whilst part-time students must attend at least two.

d) Full-time students must spend at least one month abroad, ideally one semester. This may take the form of one-semester or two-semester stays under the Erasmus+ programme or under inter-university and inter-faculty agreements. This applies if these activities cannot be funded in full or at least in part from other financial sources (e.g. Erasmus+, DAAD, Aktion Österreich, Fulbright, programmes run by the Centre for International Cooperation, GAUK, the Mobility Fund, POINT UK, or inter-university or inter-faculty agreements). Detailed information on the rules governing faculty funding for study placements abroad can be found here: https://www.prf.cuni.cz/zahranici/phd-studenti/ostatni. For students in a part-time form of study, international engagement is also a requirement; however, not only study and research stays are taken into account, but also shorter placements, participation in international scientific conferences, etc. An ISP without planned publications, conferences and a stay abroad cannot be approved.

5) Studies in the doctoral programme are completed upon the successful defence of the doctoral thesis.  An outline of the doctoral thesis project is set out in the ISP; a report on the progress of its preparation is also recorded there annually (see above). A prerequisite for the submission of the doctoral thesis is the publication of its partial outputs. The doctoral student must provide evidence (and the supervisor must verify) that the thesis has been published in full or in part in the form of an article or a book chapter or provide confirmation from the publisher that publication is forthcoming