PhD Candidate Faculty of Law

Are you interested in (international) human rights law, inequality, and the provision of social services in the Netherlands? Are you a critical thinker and do you enjoy academic writing? The Open University is looking for a PhD candidate (1,0 fte) in law to conduct innovative research leading to the completion and publication of a PhD dissertation within four years.

The topic of the research is provisionally entitled: The erosion of public social services in the Netherlands: an international social rights inquiry into the Dutch social domain laws.
The PhD candidate will work under the supervision of a research team comprised of dr. Eduardo Arenas Catalan (daily supervisor), prof. dr. Jan Willem Sap and prof. dr. mr. Carla Zoethout.

Background to the research project
The proposed project aims to analyse socio-economic inequality in the Netherlands using a critical international human rights law perspective. Taking its cue from human rights legal scholarship and reports such as a recent one published by the Social en Cultureel Planbureau which found that structural inequality is ‘substantial and persistent’ in the Netherlands, this project relies on a law-and-political-economy approach to human rights law that looks at the role law plays in enhancing the commercialization of public and social services. The research project will concentrate on the Dutch social domain laws of 2015, which have placed an array of social services (youth care, social support, and social assistance) under the competence of municipalities. Municipalities often outsource the delivery of social services through commercial private companies. The candidate will assess to what extent these developments contribute to put equality in the Netherlands under pressure.

The provisional research question is: what role does law play in creating inequality through commercialisation of social services in the Netherlands, and in what ways could both domestic and international/European human rights law contribute to reverse it? Through a critical doctrinal analysis of Dutch, European and international legal materials, this research project will analyse what role law plays in enabling the commercialization of social services in the Netherlands, particularly in the social domain. The precise research question will be developed by the candidate in consultation with the supervisors.

The law-and-political-economy approach that orients this research project emphasizes the non-neutral role the law itself plays in creating contemporary social stratification. Paying attention to the dynamics of commercialization or other structural underpinnings of the contemporary political economy, the candidate will explore ways in which the law reproduces inequality. The candidate is incentivized to engage in non-traditional conceptualisations of social human rights law that take issue with inequality or intersectional methodological approaches that understand human rights challenges in a more holistic way.

The candidate's appointment is with the Open University. The candidate may be involved in teaching at the undergraduate and/or graduate law courses within the section of European and International Law (IER). The candidate is expected to participate in scholarly activities and events (conferences, workshops, etc.) and to join ongoing research collaborations of which the Open University is part such as the Transformative Effects of Globalization in Law in the Netherlands (TEGL).

The candidate we are looking for is enthusiastic, innovative, independent and dares to think out-of-the-box. You have graduated with excellent results and have obtained a Master's degree in the field of International Human Rights Law / Public International Law and/or Dutch Public and Administrative Law. You are proficient in both Dutch and English. Affinity with and/or experience with the intersections between international human rights law and social issues is highly desirable. You have (demonstrable) scientific interest and research qualities, as evidenced for example by a scientific publication or a master's thesis. You are able to work independently but also in a team and to place the research in its social context and make it socially relevant.

Salary and working conditions
Fixed-term employment: The first year of the contract has a temporary duration of 1 year. On the basis of good progress and performance, this will be extended for a total period of 4 years. The salary of the PhD candidate is € 2.541,= gross per month during the first year, increasing to a maximum of € 3.247,= gross per month during the fourth year, based on a full working week and in accordance with the current salary scales according to Appendix A of the Collective Bargaining Agreement of the Dutch Universities.

The Open University offers good secondary and flexible employment conditions in areas such as training and mobility, working part-time, hybrid working and paid parental leave.

Location
In consultation with your supervisors, you will determine whether you will work on campus, around one of the OU studycentres spread all over the country or from home.

Flexible study anywhere in the Netherlands and Flanders.

The Open University (OU) is the part-time university of the Netherlands. Students there follow personalized and activating academic distance learning and disciplinary research is carried out within the various fields of science. Students can complete university undergraduate and graduate programs in eight subject areas. Characteristics of the education are openness, flexibility and quality (see www.ou.nl/rankings). Much attention is paid to improving student success. At the OU, more than 18,000 students study and more than 750 employees work. The OU has branches in the Netherlands and Belgium (see www.ou.nl/studiecentra). The main office is located in Heerlen.

The latest technologies and educational insights are applied, both in undergraduate and graduate programs and courses, and in projects and programs with partners. Nationally and internationally, the OU plays an important role in the innovation of higher education. Education is intertwined with research which also ensures that the current state of science is incorporated. The OU invests not only in curricular research in eight fields of science, but also in research in a multidisciplinary program: Innovating for resilience.

The Faculty of RW has about ninety employees and is currently undergoing major renewal. Lines of communication are short, initiative and boldness are appreciated, and there is plenty of room for the realization of good ideas. The faculty has two departments: the Department of Private Law and the Department of Public Law. The Privacy & Data Protection Law Section is part of the Department of Private Law. Teaching and research are supported from the Education and Research Office (BOO).

The core of legal education consists of the Law Bachelor's (LL.B) and Law Master's (LL.M) programs with five graduation variants (Private Law, Criminal Law, Administrative Law, State Law & Legal Theory and European & International Law). The faculty is currently developing a master's program in Data Protection and Privacy Law (LL.M).  In addition, there are switch programs. The faculty also provides some courses in the bachelor, master and PhD programs in cooperation with foreign partners (including the FernUni in Hagen, Germany and the UNED in Madrid, Spain) in the strategic partnership EDELNet. Faculty employees participate in other OU master's programs such as Health Sciences.

The faculty considers educational innovation important and is leading the way within the OU in the development of serious games, podcasts and other innovative forms of online guidance. However, F2F education is certainly not forgotten: the study centers are well equipped for different types of education. In educational development and educational innovation, faculty lecturers work closely with colleagues from the OU's educational expertise center, the ECO. Education is well regarded by students: the Faculty of Law ranked first in the National Student Survey 2021 and shared first place in the 2021 Study Choice Guide.

The Law School has a cross-disciplinary research program, "Law in an Individualized Network Society. The emphasis of research is on positive law, but the faculty also has a strong Empirical Legal Studies group (with professors of ELS, criminology and legal anthropology) and legal theory. There are ten full-time PhD students and eight postdocs on the faculty. In addition, there are many outside doctoral students. With its sister faculties, the OU participates in the Law Sector Plan since July 2019, in particular the spearhead: ‘Transformative effects of globalization in law in the Netherlands’ (with the UvA, UvT and UM). We also cooperate with other faculties and institutions in research and valorization, for example with the NSCR and with the UvT in www.nederlandrechtsstaat.nl, and several staff members are very active in valorization and science communication.