The Department of Legal Studies at the University of Salento promotes research, teaching, training, and third-mission activities within the legal field.
The Department pursues a policy aimed at ensuring high quality in both teaching and research. It encourages/fosters a “cosmopolitan” openness in its academic and educational activities and adopts an interdisciplinary perspective in fulfilling its mission. Among its goals is the widest possible dissemination of the results of the research conducted within it, often through open-access channels, in line with policies supporting the diffusion and reuse of knowledge.
The Department includes scholars with expertise in positive law, legal philosophy and theory, the history of Roman, medieval, and modern law, as well as political and business economics. It places particular importance on the cultural dimension of research, teaching, and third-mission activities.
The Department’s facilities are designed to meet the needs of its students. Alongside study spaces and common areas, it hosts the Library of Legal Studies, housing around 40,000 volumes and approximately fifty legal journal subscriptions. The library also contains three highly valuable specialist rooms:
- the Fondo Antico Room, containing rare and early printed legal works from the 16th and 17th centuries.
- the Gian Gualberto Archi Room for Roman Law Studies.
- the Philosophical Studies Room (Centro Studi sul Rischio).
The Department’s educational offering is characterised by broad and forward-looking content and objectives, aimed at providing graduates with strong professional opportunities. It currently offers four-degree programmes: an integrated master’s degree in law; a Bachelor’s Degree in Law and Sports Management; a Master’s Degree in Euro-Mediterranean Governance of Migration Policies; and a bachelor’s degree in law and policies for Public Administrations.
In addition to the curricular activities associated with these degree programmes—each of which includes specialised subject areas—the Department places great emphasis on the personal and professional development of its students. Course Directors are proactive in supporting students’ growth, and many classes include field activities and visits to places of academic or professional interest. The Department considers it essential to complement academic study with practical experiences that prepare students for the challenges they will encounter in their future careers.
All study programmes also ensure access to tutoring services and meetings with Course Directors to support proper exam preparation.
To ensure successful postgraduate career opportunities, the Department of Legal Studies offers two PhD programmes and three additional advanced programmes, including a School of Specialisation. All are designed to provide high-level, task-oriented, and competitive expertise.
The Department offers two PhD programs:
“Diritti e sostenibilità” (“Law and Sustainability”), an international PhD course;
“Regulation, Management and Law of Public Sector Organisations.”
The Department also hosts the School of Specialisation for Legal Professions, a third-level training programme designed to prepare future judges, lawyers, and notaries.
In addition, it offers three Second-Level Master’s Programmes:
Public Administration: Principles and Rules, Tools and Techniques (APPREST);
Accreditation of Health and Social Care Institutions (ASSO);
Executive Master’s in Banking, Financial and Insurance Law.
The Department’s research excellence plays a key role in shaping its academic programmes and is supported by numerous scientific and educational collaborations established by its faculty and researchers with prestigious European and international universities, as well as by more than forty Erasmus partnerships.