Doctoral student position in public international law for completion of a Doctor of Laws degree
Type of employment: Limit of tenure, equivalent to four years of full-time studies
Extent: 100 %
Location: Department of Law, Lund
First day of employment: 1 September 2013 or upon mutual agreement
Official Records Number: JPA 2013/6
The Faculty of Law at the University of Lund is offering one doctoral position in public international law as part of an effort to strengthen migration law research at the Faculty. The Faculty has one of the most vibrant research environments in the field of public international law in the Nordic countries. It is engaged in a systematic cooperation with the Faculty of Law at Uppsala University to build the Lund/Uppsala Migration Law Research Network (L/UMIN). L/UMIN was recently granted a larger research funding by the European Refugee Fund (ERF) to execute a 30-month research programme.
The successful applicant for the present position will implement a doctoral project on the sharing of responsibility for persons in need of international protection within the EU, and between the EU and third states. This project is part of our ERF-funded research programme. A Memorandum outlining the framework of the responsibility sharing project is available at www.pufendorf.org up to the end of the application period. Applicants are required to write an individual project description taking its cue from the Memorandum, yet displaying strong capacity for original thought and following the Faculty’s ‘Guidelines for the project description’. While the proposed project may draw on research on responsibility sharing done within other disciplines than law, it must ultimately be anchored in public international law. We encourage the applicant to approach the research question from a theoretical point of view.
The successful applicant will be employed at the Lund Faculty of Law, and be allocated a supervisor at that Faculty. In addition, a second supervisor will be appointed at the Uppsala Faculty, and active participation in L/UMIN arrangements is expected, including frequent travel to Uppsala. As ERF-funded projects demand a fair degree of self-administration and reporting of outcomes at regular intervals, we are looking for candidates that excel in research as much as they are capable of administering their own work in an orderly and diligent fashion.
Job assignments
Those appointed to doctoral studentships shall primarily devote themselves to their studies.
Those appointed to doctoral studentships may, however, work to a limited extent with educational tasks, research and administration. Before a doctorate has been awarded, however, duties of this kind may not comprise more than 20 per cent of a full time post. (Higher Education Ordinance chapter 5 section 2)
Eligibility/Entry Requirements
Only those who are or have been admitted to third-cycle courses and study programmes at a higher education may be appointed to doctoral studentships. (Higher Education Ordinance chapter 5 section 3)
A person meets the general entry requirements for third-cycle courses and study programmes if he or she:
1. has been awarded a second-cycle qualification,
2. has satisfied the requirements for courses comprising at least 240 credits of which at least 60 credits were awarded in the second-cycle, or
3. has acquired substantially equivalent knowledge in some other way in Sweden or abroad.
(Higher Education Ordinance chapter 7 section 39)
The special requirements are fulfilled by those who have completed a law programme and obtained the degree Master of Laws (juris kandidatexamen/juristexamen). The special requirements may also be fulfilled by those who can demonstrate other educational or particular professional experience where this is judged to provide the necessary qualification for doctoral studies comparable to that provided by the degree of Master of Laws (juris kandidatexamen/juristexamen regarding both the subject for doctoral study and general legal education of importance for that subject.
Applicants with Swedish juristexamen/juris kandidatexamen degrees must have attained a grade average of Ba in the compulsory courses of the undergraduate programme. Applicants holding other degrees must have attained in principle an equivalent grade average in comparable portions of the degree programme. Only where very special circumstances apply may the Faculty Board approve exemption from this rule.
The applicant must have obtained the degree of Master of Laws or the equivalent no later than 3 April 2013.
Basis of Assessment
For regulations concerning employment of Doctoral Students etc, see Higher Education Ordinance chapter 5 sections 1-7.
For regulations concerning admission to third-cycle courses and study programmes, see Higher Education Ordinance chapter 7 sections 34-41 §§.
Admittance of a doctoral student is based on an assessment of the candidate’s ability to benefit from third-cycle studies (Higher Education Ordinance chapter 5 section 5, chapter 7 sections 35, 41 §§).
The applicant’s ability to benefit from third-cycle studies and research will be assessed with reference to the selection criteria stated in the general study plan for third-cycle studies at the Faculty of Law, which are given in no particular order of importance:
Applicant´s general competence:
- quality and content of the applicant´s previous written work, such as a master´s thesis
- ability to participate actively in the faculty´s research environment
- relevant educational background and grades/grade average
- relevant work experience
Scientific quality of the project description:
- ability to describe, question and discuss the current state of research
- sufficient clarity and logical coherence in the formulation of the arm and the research questions
- stringency of legal reasoning and analysis
- adequate selection of theory and methods
- capacity for creativity and innovation in the formulation of the research questions and approaches
- clear expression and sufficient detail
Back