The Amsterdam Law School has a PhD position in the Behavioural Assumptions of Lawyers in Europe.

In May 2019 a five year research project will be launched, entitled ‘Homo Juridicus, Correcting Law’s Behavioural Illiteracy’. The research project is directed by Benjamin van Rooij, professor in Law and Society, and is financed by the European Union, European Research Council (ERC), by means of a consolidator grant.

The project seeks to develop a behavioural jurisprudence that makes the law’s behavioural function in shaping future conduct central. To do so it empirically studies assumptions that selected lawyers (prosecutors, regulators and corporate counsel) have about how their work shapes behaviour. It compares these assumptions with available scientific knowledge to unearth and correct the biases and flaws in how lawyers think about behaviour.

The project will be embedded within the Faculty of Law’s Amsterdam Paul Scholten Center for Jurisprudence.

For this research the Amsterdam Law School is seeking three PhD candidates. This vacancy is for PhD project 1.

PhD project 1 will focus on the behavioral assumptions of lawyers in Europe, with a preliminary focus on the Netherlands, France and Belgium. It focuses on prosecutors, regulators (tax, environmental and securities) as well as corporate compliance managers. The PhD researcher will operationalize this research and work with the two other PhDs, a Postdoc and the PI to develop the survey instrument that is to be used in all three projects.

The PhD researcher will carry out 12 months of fieldwork in selected locations in the EU (most likely in the Netherlands, France and Belgium) and with the help of the PI will develop a network of contexts that allow access to the lawyers studied. The PhD researcher will do qualitative and larger scale survey interviews with these lawyers to assess their behavioral assumptions and to compare these with existing scientific knowledge that has been summarized in a different project by the PI and the Postdoctoral researcher.

The PhD researcher will then code and analyze the data and use it to develop papers that will culminate in a PhD dissertation. In developing papers, the PhD researcher will collaborate with other team members.

The position is first and foremost a research position; yet the candidate may have the opportunity, or may be asked, to contribute to teaching activities to a limited extent in the second and possibly third year of PhD research

The selected candidate will:

• carry out independent high-quality scientific research leading to the degree of PhD;
• actively contribute to the ERC-project as a whole, including cooperation with the principal investigator and other researchers in the ERC-team;
• actively contribute to the research community in the Law Faculty, in particular at PSC;
• present intermediate research results at international workshops and conferences;
• participate in the organization of research activities and events, such as conferences, workshops and joint publications;
• show the relevance of her/his research for society and contribute to the dissemination of research results;
• possibly contribute to teaching. 

The ideal candidate has:

• completed a master’s degree in one of the social or behavioural sciences (preferably criminology, psychology, or sociology of law), which includes training in quantitative and qualitative research skills;
• demonstrable research knowledge of and interest in law;
• excellent command of English (written and spoken) and Chinese (Mandarin);
• interest in comparative research;
• the ability to work in a team.

The successful candidate will be offered an initial contract for 12 months. Upon positive evaluation of the PhD students’ performance the contract will be extended by 36 months.

The gross monthly salary will be in accordance with the salary scales for PhD candidates at Dutch universities, scale P (Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities) ranging from €2,325 to €2,972 gross per month (full-time equivalent). Secondary benefits at Dutch universities are attractive and include 8% holiday pay and an 8,3% end-of-year bonus. 

University of Amsterdam

With over 5,000 employees, 30,000 students and a budget of more than 600 million euros, the University of Amsterdam (UvA) is an intellectual hub within the Netherlands. Teaching and research at the UvA are conducted within seven faculties: Humanities, Social and Behavioural Sciences, Economics and Business, Law, Science, Medicine and Dentistry. Housed on four city campuses in or near the heart of Amsterdam, where disciplines come together and interact, the faculties have close links with thousands of researchers and hundreds of institutions at home and abroad.  

The UvA’s students and employees are independent thinkers, competent rebels who dare to question dogmas and aren’t satisfied with easy answers and standard solutions. To work at the UvA is to work in an independent, creative, innovative and international climate characterised by an open atmosphere and a genuine engagement with the city of Amsterdam and society.

http://www.uva.nl/en/home

Amsterdam Law School

The University of Amsterdam’s Law School prides itself on its international orientation and strong social commitment. This is reflected by both its research and educational activities. The Amsterdam Law School offers three Bachelor’s programmes, including the interdisciplinary English-language Bachelor Politics, Psychology, Law and Economics (PPLE) in cooperation with two other Faculties, as well as a variety of Master's programmes, several of which are taught exclusively in English (i.e. International and European Law, European Private Law, International Criminal Law, and Law & Finance). The Amsterdam Law School prepares students for a wide variety of legal careers including law firms, government, business and industry, the national and international judiciary, public service, human rights advocacy, and academia. With 3,700 students and over 400 staff members, it is one of the largest law faculties in the Netherlands.

http://www.uva.nl/en/faculties/faculteit-der-rechtsgeleerdheid/faculty-of-law.html