As a PhD Candidate you will conduct research geared towards enforcement of the competition law rules in the digital economy. Big data, network effects and open platforms lead to new challenges surrounding the enforcement of competition law. Such issues receive much attention from the European and national authorities. Important cases were initiated both at the national and EU levels, such as the various Google cases initiated by the European Commission and the Facebook investigation performed in Germany. Also, the recent E-commerce Sector Inquiry and the final report entitled ‘Competition policy for the digital era’, both issued by the European Commission, bring to light the challenges that the digital economy poses to competition law enforcement and explore the evolution trends of competition policy in the digital era. All these developments raise the following question: must competition law adapt in order to take into account the specific features of the digital economy, and if so, which action should be taken? This question is highly relevant, since digital markets evolve rapidly. This may require a closer look at the concepts used to deal with the existing and upcoming challenges, and at the potential development of new enforcement tools.
 
You will be expected to conduct independent research leading to the defence of a PhD thesis (written in the English language). The research should be focused on developments in both national and European competition law. This may entail conducting an analysis of public and private enforcement aspects and also of alternative dispute settlement mechanisms. You will also be expected to cooperate closely with other researchers in the field of digital legal studies. This cooperation should lead to the publication of articles in international and/or national peer-reviewed journals and/or edited volumes. The research component of the employment contract will amount to 75% of your total workload.
 
You will also be expected to perform teaching activities, amounting to 25% of the total workload agreed in the employment contract.
 
This PhD project will be embedded in the ‘Sectorplan 2019’ project, in which the Faculty of Law is participating.

• a Master’s degree in law;
• a proven focus on (EU) economic law and, more specifically, competition law;
• a good command of the English language;
• affinity with issues surrounding digitisation and law.

• employment: 0.8 - 1.0 FTE
• the gross starting salary amounts to €2,709 per month, and will increase to €3,255 in the fifth year (scale 10)
• in addition to the salary: an 8% holiday allowance and an 8.3% end-of-year bonus
• term of contract: 5 years of full-time employment
• Dutch University job profile: PhD Candidate (Promovendus)
• you will be able to make use of our Dual Career Service where our Dual Career Officer will assist with family related support, such as child care, and help your partner prepare for the local labour market and with finding an occupation

 
The intended start date is 15 September 2019.

Are you interested in our excellent employment conditions?

Faculty of Law
Faculty of Law/Digital Legal Studies
The International and European Law (IER) Department of the Faculty of Law is part of Radboud University. Teaching and research are the core tasks of the faculty. The scientific curriculum of the Law faculty is aimed at training all-round legal experts and at post-academic education of legal experts. The research is for the greatest part undertaken in collaboration with the legal professional practice, which is a typical feature of pioneering scientific research.
 
The IER Department provides and develops study programmes in International Public Law and European Union Law in both Dutch and English. Research is conducted especially in fields of European competition law, the internal market, legal protection, institutional aspects of the EU, human rights, and developments in international public law. The IER Department participates in the Business & Law Research Centre (OO&R) and the State & Law Research Centre (SteR).

The OO&R is a collaboration between the faculty and several leading law firms and multinational enterprises, which researches the fields of law that are of interest to the business sector. The structural synergy between science and practice leads to research results that are not only relevant to jurisprudence but also to the legal practice.

The SteR is specialised in multidisciplinary public law research. The Centre aims to offer a stimulating environment in which to conduct high-quality innovative national and international law research and to publish the research results through authoritative publications, lectures, conferences and symposia.

The IER Department employs 15 staff.
 
Further information on OO&R
Further information on SteR