Postdoctoral Researcher - 3 years

at  Universiteit Gent

APPLY BEFORE 29/09/2024 (DD/MM/YYYY) 23:59 (BRUSSELS TIME)

• Faculty of Law and Criminology
• Department: RE22 - Europees, Publiek- en Internationaal Recht
• Occupancy rate:100%
• Number of positions: 1
• Type of employment: Contract of unlimited duration with clause
• Term of assignment: 3 years
• Wage scale: PD1 to PD4 (doctoral degree)
• Required diploma:PhD

ABOUT THE PROJECT

The ERC research project “MIGJUST: Global Migration Justice: Beyond conflicting approaches to migration in international human rights law”, (ERC-AdG-2023- 101141743) is seeking to fill a full-time research position at a post-doctoral level.

The key hypothesis of MIGJUST is that there is a fundamental conflict in human rights case law on migration between the human rights approach, adopted by the Inter-American Court and Commission of Human Rights and the African Court and Commission of Human and Peoples’ Rights, and on the other hand the sovereignty approach of the European Court of Human Rights. The difference is also at work in the case law of the UN human rights bodies. The two approaches are reflected in, and are in turn reinforced by, political theory on migration justice. In academic studies, the conflict has not been noted because the case law of the European Court of Human Rights is considered to constitute the most developed version of international human rights law. The conflict between the two approaches is problematic because it goes against the international character of international law and hinders international cooperation. MIGJUST will address this problem by:

• analysing the under-studied case law of the Inter-American, African and UN human rights bodies;
• carrying out a comparative analysis of the European, Inter-American, African and UN case law in the field of migration;
• relating the varying positions to political theory on migration justice; and
• developing methodologies to resolve the doctrinal conflict.

The postdoctoral researcher will become a member of the Migration Law Research Group at the Faculty of Law and Criminology. English will be the main language of work.

• At least 70% of your assignment will be spent on academic research, more particularly to carry out comparative research concerning the migration case law of the Inter-American Commission and Court of Human Rights, the African Commission and Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights, the European Court of Human Rights, and the UN Committees. This task has not been foreseen in the MIGJUST research plan, and is to be filled in by the candidate for this position. The comparison should include all four jurisdictions, and can be thematic (for example: asylum, family unity, gender, or non-discrimination) or methodological (for example: interpretation, or margin of appreciation). The discipline of this sub-project can be law and/or political theory and/or political philosophy. The applicant’s ideas for a proposal should be sketched in the application letter.
• You will complete this task by writing 3 academic articles; taking the lead in editing a research handbook on migration and human rights reflecting the perspectives developed in the framework of the MIGJUST project; and co-organising a number of seminars in which contributions for the research handbook will be developed.