The Amsterdam Law School has a vacancy for a Chair-holding Professor. The chair on Information Law (Intellectual Property Law aspects of the Information Society) further strengthens the Institute’s profile as a global leader in the field of information law, in particular the law of intellectual property. The domain of Information law has long been recognized by the UvA College van Bestuur as one of the University’s Research Priority Areas (RPA’s) of the University, and has been a focal point of research (‘onderzoekszwaartepunt’) of the Law Faculty since the inception of the Institute for Information Law in 1989. IViR has played an important role in establishing the university’s profile as a world-leading university in the field of information and communications studies, and by initiating interdisciplinary collaborations with other UvA institutes and centres built bridges across the faculties. During national evaluations of legal research programmes, the institute’s research output has been consistently awarded the highest grades.

 The chair holder will collaborate with the other chair holders in the domain of information law, and share responsibility for the Faculty’s research program in information law, and for further developing the Institute’s research agenda. The chair holder will play a central role in managing the Institute, representing the Institute both internally within the Institute and the University, and externally. He or she will explore and initiate new avenues on the interface between information law and the law of intellectual property; pursue externally funded research projects; and publish cutting-edge research in top-level international journals. The chair holder is also expected to recruit and supervise PhD students.

The chair holder will share responsibility for the development and execution of the Faculty’s educational programs in the field of information law, notably the master program in Information Law, and will teach in these programs. The chair holder will also supervise theses and papers; and teach in IViR’s annual summer course on international copyright law.

The chair shall be complementary to the existing chairs in information law, which focus specifically on media and telecommunications regulation, access to information, the role of the information user, and trade and investment related aspects of information law.

The chair holder will play an important role in attracting external research funding, both from European funding agencies, NWO, and other public or private funders.

The chair-holding professor:

• is a world leading expert in the field of intellectual property law, as can be demonstrated by ground-breaking publications in established international fora, treatises, invited conference papers, etcetera;
• combines academic creativity with a broad perspective on the domain of information law and its interplay with culture and society at large;
• has proven leadership and management skills in academia, and is willing to perform administrative, organisational and managerial tasks in function of the chair, the Institute (IViR) and the University.
• is capable of initiating, organising, and procuring funding for innovative legal and interdisciplinary research in the field of intellectual property law;
• is an inspiring teacher, has a proven track record in legal education, and is capable of further developing the Faculty’s teaching program in the field of information law;
• has a PhD or equivalent degree in the field of information law, in particular the law of intellectual property, or related legal domain;
• is fully aware of current developments in information markets and information technology, and is capable of conducting research in a dynamic multidisciplinary environment;
• is committed to stimulate and supervise PhD research, and has a proven track record in PhD supervision;
• is part of an established international network, and has the contacts necessary to initiate national and international partnerships;
• is proficient in the Dutch language.

The chair will be a full-time (1.0 fte) or near full time (0.8 fte) position. The salary is in accordance with the salary scales for professors at Dutch universities, scale H2 (Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities), ranging from €5,582 to €8,127 gross per month (full-time equivalent) depending on expertise and previous experience. Secondary benefits at Dutch universities are attractive and include 8% holiday allowance and an 8.3% end-of-year allowance. 

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.

Amsterdam’s Law School

The Amsterdam 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.

The Institute for Information Law (IViR) is the largest research facility in the field of information law in Europe, and one of the largest of its kind in the world. The institute’s mission is to further the development of information law into a balanced framework that accommodates the needs and interests of the information society. IViR has a strong presence in European and international academic networks through a broad array of activities, regularly engages in national and international research collaborations, and collaborates with non-legal disciplines such as economics, communications science, computer science, philosophy, digital humanities and the arts.

Information law transcends traditional legal boundaries and comprises a wide set of legal issues directly concerning the creation, distribution and use of information goods in the cultural, social and industrial domains: intellectual property law, fundamental rights of communication (notably privacy and freedom of expression), regulation of government and commercial information, and market regulation of information networks (telecommunications, broadcasting and other media).

The law of intellectual property commodifies information by creating exclusive, property-like rights in information products and services. Intellectual property law encompasses a broad, constantly expanding range of immaterial rights, ranging from copyright and neighbouring rights in the cultural domain to patents, design rights, trademarks and trade names in the industrial and entrepreneurial sectors (‘industrial property’). More recent expansions include database right, plant variety rights, trade secret law and ‘data property’. While IP rights play a vital role in promoting and sustaining the information economy, by protecting the economic and moral interests of creators, inventors and innovators in the information industries, they also pose potential conflicts with countervailing rights and freedoms, such as freedom of expression, rights to privacy, freedom of competition and internal market freedoms. Optimizing the law of intellectual property, therefore, requires balancing the interests of creators and inventors with the general needs of the information society and the rights of citizens within the broader framework of information law.

Since information goods and services travel seamlessly across borders, the law of intellectual property – like other subdomains of information law – has a strong international and supranational dimension. Norm setting in this area therefore occurs increasingly at the international and European levels.