At the Faculty of Law, University of Bergen, there is a vacant position as a Postdoctoral Fellow. The position is connected to the research project «Causes and Consequences of the Legal Architecture of Climate Politics (LEG-ARCH)», a collaboration between the Faculty of Law and Department of Comparative Politics, Faculty of Social Sciences, both at University of Bergen (UiB). The position is financed by UiB under the UiB Strategy 2016-2022, Ocean, life, society; “climate and energy readaptation”. The Postdoctoral Fellow will be a member of the Research group for Natural resource law, environmental law and development law and Bergen Research Group on Challenges to Advanced Democracies. The position is attached to the Faculty of Law where the Postdoctoral Fellow will have his/her main institutional affiliation and office space. Residence in the Bergen area for the duration of the position is compulsory and non-negotiable.

The position is a fixed term contract. The term of employment for a Postdoctoral Fellow position is 3 years, or 4 years if the applicant is qualified to teach in compulsory courses at the Masters level at the Faculty of Law. Starting date upon agreement.

About the project/work tasks:

• The leaders of the project are Professor Sigrid Eskeland Schütz (Law) and Professor Michaël Tatham (Comparative Politics) who are LEG-ARCH’s Principal Investigators. The candidate will also work in synergy with existing initiatives such as the GOVLAND project (Legal Governance in Land Use Planning) and the CLIM-ARCH project (The Architecture of Climate Change Politics). The candidate will also be able to benefit from interactions with the interdisciplinary CET Centre (Climate and Energy Transformation).
• The project is at an intersecting point between legal studies and political science. It seeks to provide information on the interaction between climate politics and law.
• It is expected that the position holder will engage in analyses of the nature of legal authority on climate related issues. The position holder can engage in such analyses across (a) policy domains, (b) territorial scales, (c) phases of the policy cycle, (d) over time, and (e) over countries. The proposed policy domains include energy, transport, agriculture (including fisheries and forestry), planning, building, waste, or the environment. The proposed territorial scales include the local, regional, national, continental, and global scales. Relevant policy phases include any phase in the policy cycle as a whole, from policy initiation all the way to policy implementation and contestation. The time dimension runs from the 1950s to present days. Relevant countries include advanced democracies, with a preference for European countries and especially Scandinavian countries.
• The project as a whole seeks to enhance our understanding of:
  • the nature of legal authority on climate-impacting issues
  • how legal authority has changed over time in terms of its institutional architecture and formal distribution of authority
  • what the causes of the evolution of legal authority on climate-impacting issues are, and finally
  • what the consequences of different legal architectures are.
• Candidates are expected to propose research questions within this broad project. Illustrative examples include:
  • mapping out the legal authority of, and legal interaction between, different levels of government at a specific phase of the policy cycle (for example, implementation or contestation);
  • analyzing the tension between evolving international norms/commitments and changing domestic norms;
  • engaging in comparisons of legal architectures and systems, paying attention at the distribution of authority between the different territorial scales.

Qualifications and personal qualities:

• The applicant must hold a Norwegian PhD or an equivalent degree abroad within law, or must have submitted his/her doctoral thesis for assessment prior to the application deadline. It is a condition of employment that the PhD has been awarded.
• Applicants must work independently and in a structured manner, and have the ability to cooperate with others.
• Applicants must be proficient in both written and oral English

About the position as Postdoctoral Fellow

The position as Postdoctoral Fellow is a fixed term contract with the primary objective of qualifying the appointee for work in top academic positions. Individuals may not be hired for more than one fixed term period as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the same institution.

Applicants must submit a project proposal together with the application before the application deadline. The project proposal shall be part of (attatchment to) the employment contract.

Upon appointment, applicants must submit a project proposal for the qualifying work including a work schedule.

For Postdoctoral Fellow positions associated with externally financed projects, the completion of the project proposal for the qualifying work will take place in consultation with the project/centre manager. It is a requirement that the project is completed in the course of the period of employment.

We can offer:

• A good and professionally challenging working environment
• Enrolment in the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund
• A position in an inclusive workplace (IA enterprise)
• Good welfare benefits
• Salary at pay grade 72 (code 1352/pay range 24) according to the state salary scale upon appointment. This constitutes a gross annual salary of NOK 658 300 per year. For particularly highly qualified applicants, a higher salary may be considered

Read more about what UiB can offer its employees at

https://www.uib.no/en/hr/74243/what-can-university-bergen-offer-its-employees.

Your application must include:

• A brief account of the applicant's research interests and motivation for applying for the position
• Project proposal for the planned research (2 - 5 pages). This proposal shall include a plan for the dissemination of the research. The project proposal will be included as part of the contract
• The names and contact information for two reference persons. One of these must be the main supervisor of the PhD thesis
• CV
• Certified copies of diplomas and transcripts of grades and official confirmation that the doctoral thesis has been submitted. Applicants whose education is from another country than Norway, need to also attach a certified translation of the diploma and transcript of grades to English or a Scandinavian language, if the original is not in any of these languages. They are also advised to attach an explanation of their university’s grading system.
• A complete list of scientific publications
• Academic works that the applicant wishes to be considered by the valuation committee. If the submitted publications are co-authored, the division of work between the authors must be confirmed in the form of a co-author statement. The submitted publications must be in English or in a Scandinavian language unless otherwise specifically agreed upon

The application and appendices with certified translations into English or a Scandinavian language must be sent electronically via the link «Apply for position» on this page.

General information:

Detailed information about the position can be obtained by contacting:

• Vice-Dean Anne Marie Frøseth, email: Anne.Froseth@uib.no, tel. +47 55 58 95 49, or
  
• Senior Adviser Randi Sæbøe, email: Randi.Saboe@uib.no, tel. + 47 55 58 95 39

For a more detailed overview of LEG-ARCH’s broader ambitions, interested candidates should get in touch with Professor Sigrid Eskeland Schütz, email: Sigrid.Schytz@uib.no, tel. + 47 55 58 95 89.

Practical questions regarding the application procedures should be directed to Higher Executive Officer Lise Engelbreth, email: Lise.Engelbreth@uib.no, tel. +47 55 58 96 78.

The state labour force shall reflect the diversity of Norwegian society to the greatest extent possible. Age and gender balance among employees is therefore a goal. People with immigrant backgrounds and people with disabilities are encouraged to apply for the position. The University of Bergen applies the principle of public access to information when recruiting staff for academic positions. Information about applicants may be made public even if the applicant has asked not to be named on the list of persons who have applied. The applicant must be notified if the request to be omitted is not met.

Further information about our employment process can be found here.

The successful applicant must comply with the guidelines that apply to the position at any time.

Successful applicants may be called in for an interview.

The closing date for applications is December 9th 2018.

Jobbnorge ID: 160293

Intern ID: 2018/13300

Apply for position