Midseason Event 2025

Programme & Registration

On March 20, 2025, we’re bringing together researchers and experts for another engaging edition of the ELS Academy’s midseason event, this time on the topic of research funding. This is your opportunity to gain valuable insights into securing grants, navigating funding opportunities, and learning from other’s experiences, including rejections. Because let’s be real—funding success doesn’t come without setbacks. That’s why we’ll also discuss the challenges of rejections, what we can learn from them, and how to turn them into future opportunities.

This event is free of charge. More information and sign up here.

News

Small grants scheme closed, budget has been allocated fully

The entire budget allocated to the Small Grants Scheme has now been awarded, reflecting the high demand and strong interest in this initiative. We wish all grant recipients the best of success in the coming months as they carry out their empirical-legal studies!

For more updates and information, you can check out the small grants scheme page and keep up to date through our newsletter and LinkedIn.

PhD Event

ELS Kick-off Event 2024: A Recap

On 10-11 October, we organized two incredible, informative and community-building days at the Kick-off event at Erasmus School of Law, Erasmus University Rotterdam. From thought-provoking presentations by Prof. Lee Epstein, to a broad range of panels from our community, we had a productive event! Here’s a quick rundown of the days:

We started off the first day with a warm welcome from Jessie Pool (ELS Academy, ELS Lab @Leiden) and Elena Kantorowicz-Reznichenko (Organizing Committee). Prof. Lee Epstein followed by delving into her empirical legal research on judicial politics, political polarisation in the US, and the US Supreme Court.

After energizing with coffee and cookies, Elena Kantorowicz-Reznichenko guided the group in a workshop through ethics and data in empirical legal research.

Over a delicious lunch, attendees had the chance to meet other PhD cohort members and connect and exchange ideas. We continued the discussions by splitting up into several panels on pre-analysis and research papers. These consisted of:

•  Session 1A led by Nina Holvast, comprised of Marleen Kappe, Serkan Yolcu and Pablo Pizarro  Zuniga.
•  Session 1B led by Peter Mascini, comprised of Luuk de Boer, Tabea Krauss and Anastasiia Panicheva.
• Session 1C led by Jessie Pool, comprised of Amarilys Abreu and Federica Casano.

After more coffee, we continued with more panels, consisting of:

• Session 2A led by Arno Akkermans, comprised of Vladimir Belev and Eduardo Silva de Freitas
• Session 2B led by Elena Kantorowicz-Recnichenko, comprised of Gijs Custers, Prateek Jain and @Iris Meiejer
• Session 2C led by Lieselot Bisschop, comprised of Sophie Melchers and Jerome Yves Vanwelde

As the first day came to an end, we wrapped up the productive day on a high note with drinks and dinner.

The next day, we were once again treated to a talk by Prof. Lee Epstein, this time in the form of a workshop on how to conduct empirical legal research.

After a coffee break, the last research panel took place led by Rowie Stolk, comprised of Jessica Kluger and Inessa Sakhno.

The event finished with a collaborative research design group work, followed by presentations, jury deliberation, and the announcement of the winner. We’d like to congratulate Loran Kostense, Anne Verboom, Sofia De Jong and Rieneke Stelma-Roorda for winning €5000 ELS Academy Small Grant to conduct research on comparing (the outcomes of) different case law reviews.

A huge thank you to all our speakers, organizers, and attendees for making this event a resounding success!