ELS Kick-off Event 2024: A Recap

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!