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PhD

Are you interested in undertaking a PhD? If so, please note the following information. Enquiries are only likely to be successful if you are able and willing to meet the requirements set out below.

1. Requirements

First of all, please ensure that you meet the requirements set out in the doctoral regulations (external link, opens in a new window) of the Faculty of Law at the University of Regensburg.

A PhD generally requires current or previous affiliation with the chair. External PhD students who have completed their undergraduate studies in Germany are only accepted in exceptional cases, particularly if the research topic aligns closely with Professor Heese’s current research interests. Where necessary, participation in a seminar offered by Professor Heese, with above-average results (‘good’ or better), may be required to assess suitability for academic work.

2. Research Areas

Professor Heese supervises doctoral research projects exclusively within the scope of his main areas of research and interest, i.e.

  • Civil law, in particular (corporate) liability law
  • Civil procedure law, collective legal protection and complex litigation
  • Insolvency law and corporate restructuring law
  • Alternative dispute resolution, in particular arbitration law
  • Commercial and business law, in particular banking and investment law
  • Insurance law
  • European private and procedural law
  • Professional conduct for lawyers
  • Comparative law

Professor Heese’s research is predominantly focused on comparative law. PhD projects should therefore, as a rule, also be based on comparative law. Incorporating short-term research stays abroad is advantageous and may, where appropriate, be supported by scholarships.

3. Timeframe

PhD projects should be completed within a reasonable timeframe, i.e. typically within 2–2.5 years. It is therefore a prerequisite that, for the duration of the PhD, the candidate has the time available equivalent to at least a half-time position (20 hours per week). Supervision of doctoral projects intended to be undertaken alongside full-time employment (‘weekend PhDs’) is therefore not an option. Naturally, family planning does not constitute an obstacle to undertaking a doctoral project.

4. PhD enquiries: Content and format

Please address doctoral enquiries exclusively in writing by post (not by email, as such enquiries will not be answered) to the Chair:

Professor Dr Michael Heese, LL.M. (Yale)
Chair of Civil Law, Civil Procedure and Insolvency Law,
European Private and Procedural Law and Comparative Law
University of Regensburg
Universitätsstraße 31
93053 Regensburg

Please enclose with your enquiry your academic transcripts to date (including your A-levels), a CV and a short letter of motivation clearly setting out your interest in one of the Chair’s research areas.

You should already have given some thought to a possible PhD topic; it would be advantageous to include an outline of your proposed topic with your application. However, the final selection and definition of the topic will only be determined following an interview with Professor Heese.

For cost reasons, application documents cannot be returned. We therefore ask you to include only plain photocopies with your application and to refrain from using a presentation folder.

5. Supervision approach

The supervision plan for accepted PhD students consists of regular PhD seminars, but above all of individual one-to-one meetings. There will be no preliminary correction of individual chapters of the dissertation. Admitted PhD students give a presentation at least once a year as part of the PhD seminar and present their progress and interim results for discussion. Attendance at the doctoral seminars is compulsory as an integral part of the supervision, even if the doctoral candidate is not presenting their research project at the seminar in question. Additional individual meetings are arranged flexibly according to need.

6. Language and style

A good to very good doctoral thesis is correct in terms of spelling and grammar and, stylistically, is written in an appealing and unpretentious manner. The language used is technically precise yet clear and easily understandable. Not only should convoluted sentence structures be avoided, but also, in particular, foreign words – thereby preventing the impression that the aim is to impress with (superfluous) specialist terminology. The guiding principle is this: anyone who cannot express themselves clearly has, in all likelihood, not even understood their own topic, and anyone who resorts to foreign words is, in all likelihood, seeking to conceal the weakness of their argument. As a guide to stylistic issues, Tonio Walter’s *Kleine Stilkunde für Juristen* ( (external link, opens in a new window)A Brief Guide to Style for Lawyers) (external link, opens in a new window), published in its 4th edition in 2024, is the first choice.

7. Completed doctoral theses (selection)

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