Dr. Douglas Carvalho RibeiroInterview Series with AMBSL Alumni

9 June 2026, by AMBSL P2P Network

This interview with Dr Douglas Carvalho Ribeiro is the first in an interview series initiated by the Doctoral Students Network of the Albrecht Mendelssohn Bartholdy Graduate School of Law (AMBSL). The series aims to present the experiences of AMBSL alumni during their doctoral studies and professional career, to offer current doctoral candidates as well as prospective applicants insights into the doctoral experience at AMBSL, and to strengthen communication and networking between alumni and active members.

Dr Douglas Carvalho Ribeiro is an alumnus and former scholarship holder of the AMBSL structured doctoral programme. In this interview, he shares his journey from his first encounter with German scholarship to his application to AMBSL, and from his doctoral studies to his career journey. We sincerely thank Dr Carvalho Ribeiro for openly sharing his experiences and recommendations with us.

What motivated you to apply for the structured doctoral programme at AMBSL?

My interest in studying in Germany goes back to my first semester of law school (2009), when I came into contact — almost by accident — with the political theory of the Weimar Republic. That sparked a desire to pursue my PhD in Germany that stayed with me throughout my studies. Along the way, I spent time as a Guest student at the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena (2012) and was awarded a DAAD scholarship (2014), both of which gave me a first taste of the German academic environment and paved the way for my later decision to pursue a doctorate here. When João Andrade Neto, a fellow Brazilian jurist and alumnus of the programme, told me about AMBSL — that it was interdisciplinary, that people were welcoming and supportive — I thought, why not give it a try?

What was your PhD research about?

My doctoral thesis was a comparative legal study of the judicial regulation of political party financing in Germany and Brazil. The comparison between these two legal orders allowed me to examine different forms of judicial agency concerning the social linking of political parties in their respective societies — that is, how courts in each country shape the relationship between parties and the society they are embedded in through decisions on political finance.

In which ways did the AMBSL Programme support your doctoral research?

First and foremost, I am deeply thankful for the financial support. Without the AMBSL scholarship, I would simply not have been in a position to pursue a PhD in Germany, so that was the essential foundation. Beyond that, the academic programme itself was very enriching. I remember, for example, a seminar with Prof. Karl-Heinz Ladeur on constitutional adjudication that was genuinely inspiring and opened new perspectives for my own research. Finally, the support from the coordination team made a real difference, especially because I went through part of my doctoral journey during the pandemic. Everyone was overloaded at that time, but it was always possible to reach out to the team with the specific issues we were facing. That kind of availability and care meant a lot during such a difficult period.

Could you describe a challenge you encountered during your PhD and what you learned from it?

The biggest challenge was learning to deal with the sheer length and slowness of the process. A PhD is not something you finish tomorrow, and there were many moments where the end felt impossibly far away. What helped me was adopting a kind of everyday discipline — just showing up and doing a little bit each day without obsessing over when it would be done. There is a beautiful passage in Michael Ende's Momo, where the street sweeper Beppo explains that you should never think about the whole street at once, but just focus on the next sweep of the broom and eventually you look up and the street is clean (“Auf einmal merkt man, dass man Schritt für Schritt die ganze Straße gemacht hat. Man hat gar nicht gemerkt wie, und man ist nicht außer Puste. Er nickte vor sich hin und sagte abschließend: „Das ist wichtig…Schritt –Atemzug – Besenstrich. Schritt – Atemzug – Besenstrich”). That image stayed with me throughout my PhD. I learned that large intellectual projects are not conquered in dramatic leaps, but through steady, patient, daily work — one paragraph, then another paragraph, then a section, and so on, until one day you realize the thesis is done.

What advice would you give to prospective or current doctoral candidates?

I think every person has their own path and their own way of working, so I would be cautious about giving universal advice. But one thing I would say is: think early on about knowledge exchange and external communication. We are living through a shift in how science and relevance are understood, and I think it is increasingly important to be able to explain — also in front of a broader, non-legal public — why your research matters. People don't need to know every detail of your methodology or your theoretical framework, but they should be able to understand what your research contributes and why it is relevant. Being able to articulate that clearly is not just good for outreach — it also sharpens your own thinking about what you are doing and why. And in the current situation, it is urgent that we can justify why society should keep financing academic research.

Could you describe your career journey since your time at AMBSL?

After my AMBSL scholarship ended in 2021, I stayed at the University of Hamburg and started working at the Chair of Science and Innovation Studies (Wiso-Fakultät) as a project researcher in the RechTech consortium — a BMFTR-funded joint project between TU Munich and the University of Hamburg on reflexive legal counselling for innovations and technological developments. This experience opened new avenues for my research, prompting me to explore the intersection of law, technology, and society. I engaged with Science and Technology Studies, data governance, and questions of algorithmic regulation. In 2024, I continued working at the same chair as a research associate and, since October 2025, I have held a postdoctoral position there. Since January 2026, I have also been a fellow in the project 'Complexity as a Legal Topic', deepening my engagement with the relationship between emergent technologies, transformed imaginaries, and legal systems. Along the way, I defended my doctoral thesis and conducted qualitative research on topics such as AI in legal practice and data colonialism. I have also developed and taught several interdisciplinary seminars on law, emergent technologies, and societal transformation.