Summer School on Law and Logic

The Summer School on Law and Logic is being held for its eleventh year, from 1st to the 6th July 2024. This course is designed to give students rigorous training in a wide variety of logical methods that can assist all kinds of legal analysts, including students, lawyers, judges and scholars. The overall framework for the course is the Logocratic Method, a systematic method for assessing the strengths and weaknesses of arguments, including, but not limited to, legal arguments. Since so much legal analysis consists of making and evaluating arguments, this method can be a powerful tool for all legal analysts.

On the right-side menu, you can find a short description of the courses and the relevant contacts.

For further information on the venue of the conference (Badia Fiesolana), please see the EUI website.

How to Apply to Law and Logic Summer School 2024

Applications for the Law & Logic Summer School 2023 are now closed. Applications for the 2024 school should open in late January/early February.

You must submit your application and upload your CV and transcripts of your degrees via the interactive online application form. You need to:

1. Register and insert your personal details
2. Complete and submit your application

Once you have registered, you may continue to work on your application. Submit the application only when you have filled in all the information correctly and have successfully uploaded your CV and transcripts of your degrees.

After your application is evaluated, if you are admitted to the summer school, you will receive an acceptance email. After you receive the acceptance email, you can register for the course by following the instructions in that message.

The maximum number of participants is 30. We will create a reserve list and notify students in that list if any places open up after our initial admission of candidates.

If you have questions about the program, including whether it fits your other programs of study, please contact Professor Scott Brewer (Harvard Law School) at [email protected].

Every day of the course, except for the final day, will have four sessions, lasting 1:30h each. Between each session, there will be a 30-minute break. The table below shows the start and end times of each session, specified in Florence time (CEST).

First morning session: Begins 9:00 AM - Ends 10:30 AM

Second morning session: Begins 11:00 AM - Ends 12:30 PM

Lunch: Begins 12:30 PM - Ends 14:00 PM

First afternoon session: Begins 14:00 PM - Ends 15:30 PM

Second afternoon session: Begins 16:00 PM - Ends 17:30 PM

On the final day of the summer school, Saturday, there will be a special schedule in order to present certificates of attendance and to accommodate those who will be leaving early. The two afternoon sessions will be replaced by a single closing session, meaning activities end at 15:30 CEST on Saturday.

First morning session: Begins 9:00 AM - Ends 10:30 AM

Second morning session: Begins 11:00 AM - Ends 12:30 PM

Lunch: Begins 12:30 PM - Ends 14:00 PM

Closing session - Certificates of Attendance:  Begins 14:00 PM - Ends 15:30 PM

The readings for the Summer School will be shared with the selected participants before the school begins.

Each lecture day will be composed of four 90-minute sessions, with 30-minute breaks between sessions and a 90-minute lunch break after the second session. All times below are presented in Florence time (CEST).

View full programme

DAY 1 — MONDAY, JULY 1

Registration: 08:30 AM - 09:00 AM

• 09:00 AM - 10:30 AM, Session: 1.1.1: Introduction: Perceptions of cooperation and clash of logic and law – opening thoughts about the utilities of logic for law – Basic definitions and methods of the Logocratic Method (Scott Brewer)
• 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM, Session: 1.1.2: Logic and Argumentation (Giovanni Sartor)
• 14:00 PM - 15:30 PM, Session: 1.2.1: Introduction to propositional logic: Part 1 (Juliano Maranhão)
• 16:00 PM - 17:30 PM, Session: 1.2.2: Introduction to propositional logic: Part 2 (Juliano Maranhão)

DAY 2 — TUESDAY, JULY 2

• 09:00 AM - 10:30 AM, Session: 2.1.1, Review of basic concepts and exercises on propositional logic: Part 1 (Juliano Maranhão)
• 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM, Session: 2.1.2: Review of basic concepts and exercises on propositional logic: Part 2 (Juliano Maranhão)
• 14:00 PM - 15:30 PM, Session: 2.2.1: Representing legal rules and legal arguments in propositional logic (common law) (Scott Brewer)
• 16:00 PM - 17:30 PM, Session: 2.2.2: Representing legal rules and legal arguments in propositional logic (civil law) (Matthias Armgardt)

DAY 3 — WEDNESDAY, JULY 3

• 09:00 AM - 10:30 AM, Session: 3.1.1: From propositional to predicate logic: grammar and basic structure (Nino Rotolo)
• 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM, Session: 3.1.2: From propositional to predicate logic: semantics and relations (Nino Rotolo)
• 14:00 PM - 15:30 PM, Session: 3.2.1: Modelling the law in predicate logic (Nino Rotolo)
• 16:00 PM - 17:30 PM, Session: 3.2.2: Revision of basic concepts and exercises on predicate logic (Nino Rotolo)

DAY 4 — THURSDAY, JULY 4

• 09:00 AM - 10:30 AM, Session: 4.1.1: Argumentation and argument schemes (Giovanni Sartor)
• 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM, Session: 4.1.2 : Formalising argumentation / Burdens of proof and presumptions (Giovanni Sartor)
• 14:00 PM - 15:30 PM, Session: 4.2.1: Deontic logic: Part 1 (Emiliano Lorini, Giovanni Sartor)
• 16:00 PM - 17:30 PM, Session: 4.2.2: Deontic logic: Part 2 (Rūta Liepiņa)

DAY 5 — FRIDAY, JULY 5

• 09:00 AM - 10:30 AM, Session: 5.1.1: Case-based reasoning (analogy): Part 1 (Scott Brewer)
• 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM, Session: 5.1.2:  Case-based reasoning (analogy): Part 2 (Scott Brewer)
•  14:00 PM - 15:30 PM, Session: 5.2.1: Case-based reasoning (factors and dimensions): Part 1 (Ilaria Canavotto)
• 16:00 PM - 17:30 PM, Session: 5.2.2: Case-based reasoning (factors and dimensions): Part 2 (Ilaria Canavotto)

DAY 6 — SATURDAY, JULY 6

• 09:00 AM - 10:30 AM, Session: 6.1.1 : Induction: generalisation and specification (Scott Brewer)
• 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM, Session: 6.1.2: Inference to the best explanation / Abduction (Scott Brewer)
• 14:00 PM - 15:30 PM, Session: 6.2.1: Closing session: Presentation of Certificates of Attendance

Registration fee
The selected candidates will be sent a link to register online for the Course.

Participation Fee

Onsite: 600 euros
online: 400 euros

The registration fee includes e-learning materials, lunches, coffee breaks, and the Social Dinner.

For further information, please send an e-mail to our organization team: [email protected].

We encourage candidates from the so-called ‘Widening Countries’ to apply.

If you are a candidate from one of the following countries, you may be eligible for your course costs to be paid through the EUI’s Widening Programme.

Please indicate on your application form or by writing an email to [email protected] if you wish to be considered, and indicate if your participation is conditional on this funding.

In the European Union:
Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

Outside the European Union:
Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Moldova, and Ukraine