PhD Programme

PhD Programme in Commercial Law

The PhD programme in Commercial Law at Hanken prepares students for challenging academic and non-academic careers by providing an individually tailored program for each doctoral student.

Hanken attracts doctoral students in many fields of Commercial Law including Tax Law, Law of Corporate Governance and Labour Law.
Intellectual property Law, one the areas of strength recognized by Hanken, has particularly attracted doctoral students.

Doctoral candidates in Intellectual Property Law work in close cooperation with other Finnish doctoral candidates in IP law through the INNOCENT and OMM doctoral programs. The Nordic Doctoral Network for Intellectual Property Law also provides cooperation with doctoral candidates in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The Network arranges an annual seminar in one of the Nordic countries.

Close ties have also been established with the professors and doctoral candidates at the University of Bayreuth through a bilateral cooperation program funded by the Academy of Finland and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.

In addition to the doctoral dissertation itself, Hanken's PhD degree requires the doctoral student to take certain courses and to attend and present papers at doctoral seminars and international conferences. Normally the students graduate with a PhD after four to five years of full-time studies.

Financial support for studies is provided (including conference/seminar attendance), subject to satisfactory performance, and no tuition is
charged. We accept new students twice a year, with application deadlines in May and in October.

Details about how to apply, financial support, prerequisites and more can be found at the pages of doctoral studies.

Marcus Norrgård
Professor of Intellectual Property Law