Tilburg Law School is interested in hiring a Postdoctoral Research to collaborate on the TransLitigate Project led by Dr. Phillip Paiement. The project focuses on analyzing the agency of transnational strategic litigators in various fields of environmental governance, including climate change, large-scale land transitions, pollution related to extractives industries, and biodiversity conservation. The project combines doctrinal, comparative and socio-legal methods to study forms and patterns of collaboration among strategic litigators in these fields. It studies transnational litigation networks across multitudes of jurisdictions in diverse socio-economic and political contexts.  

Candidates for this vacancy should have a proven track record of conducting legal research in one or more of the case study fields (noted above). Ideally, you will have worked on litigation-related aspects of these fields of law, and/or have had (limited) experience with qualitative socio-legal methods of research. Due to the comparative, multi-jurisdictional nature of the project, candidates with research backgrounds or familiarity in multiple jurisdictions are preferred. 

As part of this position you will be a member of the Constitutionalizing in the Anthropocene research community at Tilburg Law School. This research community, founded in 2019, includes researchers from diverse disciplinary backgrounds – legal theory, environmental law, political science, socio-legal studies – who are concerned with the evolving role of law in the Anthropocene. It includes research on issues of legal and political representation of Nature and future generations, the regulation of emergent technologies, and institutional questions about law’s historic and contemporary role in facilitating the conditions of the Anthropocene. Likewise, you will be welcome to join in a newly emerging research community focused on ‘Global Legal Professionals.’ Both research communities are members of PLG’s Global Law and Governance research programme at Tilburg Law School.

This position consists predominantly of research (90%), with limited opportunities for education (10%) in the the Global Law LLB, Rechtsgeleerdheid LLB, International Law and Global Governance LLM and/or the European Law and Global Risk LLM.

Tilburg University believes that academic excellence is achieved through the combination of outstanding research and education, in which social impact is made by sharing knowledge. In doing so, we recognize that excellence is not only achieved through individual performance, but mostly through team effort in which each team member acts as a leader connecting people. 

Candidates for this position should be able to demonstrate fulfillment of the following job requirements:

• Proficient in conducting research in the English language;
• Completed a PhD degree in law or a related field;
• Capable of conducting high-quality legal and/or socio-legal research on transnational and comparative litigation in one or more of the following fields: climate change, large-scale land acquisitions, pollution, and biodiversity conservation;
• Established a personal research network corresponding to their expertise;
• Demonstrates scientific integrity;
• Capable of working collaboratively on research activities;
• Contributes to an open and diversified culture of experience.

Fixed-term contract: 3 years.

Tilburg University offers excellent terms of employment. We believe flexibility, development, and good employee benefits are very important. We make clear agreements on career paths and offer all kinds of facilities and schemes to maintain an optimum balance between work and private life. Tilburg University fosters diversity and inclusion; that is why we pursue an active policy for inclusive teams where diverse talents can flourish.

The starting gross salary varies between €3.821 and €5.230 gross per month (full time) based on scale 11 of the Collective Labor Agreement Dutch Universities. Tilburg University actively promotes equal and transparent salary between men and women by strictly applying predetermined parameters based on the candidate’s experience. Employees recruited from abroad may be eligible for the 30% tax facility- this means that 30% of your salary will be paid as a tax-free reimbursement.

Tilburg University offers you an employment agreement for a fixed period of 3 years for 1,0 FTE. 

You are entitled to a holiday allowance amounting to 8% and a year-end bonus of 8.3% of your gross yearly income. If you work 40 hours per week, you receive 41 days of paid recreational leave per year.

Please visit Working at Tilburg University for more information on our employment conditions. 

Tilburg University

Under the motto “Understanding society”, Tilburg University’s more than 1,500 employees develop knowledge, transfer it to over 19.000 students of 110 nationalities, and bring people from various disciplines and organizations together to learn from each other. In this way, we want to contribute to solving complex social issues. Our focus areas are economics, business and entrepreneurship, social and behavioral sciences, law and public administration, the humanities and digital sciences, and theology. We seek the connection between different disciplines in order to find solutions to the major issues we face as a society. Our students are trained to be responsible and entrepreneurial thinkers, driven by solidarity, a sense of responsibility and empathy, who are able to influence and give direction to a rapidly changing society in an innovative way. Tilburg University has a culture of collaboration and co-creation, at local, regional, national, and international levels.

Since its founding in 1963, Tilburg Law School has become one of the leading law schools in Europe. Through top-level research and the provision of high-quality university education, the School contributes to society. Tilburg Law School is organized into five Departments: Public Law and Governance (PLG); Law, Technology and Society (TILT); Private, Business and Labour Law (PBLL); the Fiscal Institute Tilburg (FIT) and Criminal Law. The mission of the School is to understand and improve the role of law and public administration in addressing the social problems of today and tomorrow. Through research and education, our scholars contribute to that mission. 

More than 4,000 students pursue a Bachelor's, pre-Master's or Master's degree at Tilburg Law School. Through this education, we train students in law, public administration, and data science. The Tilburg Educational Profile (TEP) is unique in the Netherlands. Central to it are three core concepts: knowledge, skill and character. A university education provides students with the latest substantive knowledge and trains them to be critical thinkers and resilient professionals. In addition, the School is committed to innovative educational concepts and, partly in response to the coronavirus crisis, has invested heavily in the quality of online education and in innovative didactic tools to make and keep students inquisitive. 

Tilburg Law School's research is highly regarded nationally and internationally. The Tilburg Law School Departments work closely together in their research in four signature research programs: 1) Global Law and Governance; 2) Law and Security; 3) Connecting Organizations; and 4) Regulating Socio-Technical Change. 

The Department of Public Law & Governance (PLG) is a unique collaboration of researchers in the fields of International Law, European law, Constitutional Law, Administrative Law, Environmental Law, Public Administration, Legal Philosophy, Political Science, Legal History, and Jurisprudence. Collaboration within the Department is very much inspired by joint research interests.