PhD research fellow in ERC-project on International Refugee Law
Job description
A position as PhD Research Fellow (SKO 1017) is available to undertake research as part of the project “Protection without Ratification? International Refugee Law beyond States Parties to the 1951 Refugee Convention” (BEYOND). The project is funded by the European Research Council. The candidate will work closely together with the principal investigator of BEYOND, Prof. Maja Janmyr at the Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law.
The period of appointment runs for three years without teaching duties, or four years with teaching duties constituting 25% of the overall workload. A four-year fellowship requires that the candidate can contribute to the current teaching needs of the Faculty of Law. See this list for examples of courses that may be relevant for teaching duties.
BEYOND reconsiders the impact of international refugee law by developing a global and empirically driven theoretical framework for understanding the behavior and position of states that have chosen not to sign the 1951 Refugee Convention. While most states of the world are parties to this Convention, important refugee-hosting states remain non-signatories. These states are generally seen as ‘exceptions’ to international refugee law, and it is the aim of BEYOND to shed crucial, empirically grounded light on, and to question, this prevailing assumption. The project is concerned with the following main questions: 1. What is the influence of the Refugee Convention in non-signatory states?; 2. How do these non-signatory states engage with and help create the international refugee law regime, i.e. the instruments and institutions of refugee protection with the Refugee Convention and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as cornerstones?
BEYOND takes both a broader perspective that historically and politically seeks to situate these non-signatory states within the international refugee law regime, and a more focused perspective that grounds refugee protection in lived experiences and local initiatives. The project has strong empirical components and focuses on four case study countries: Lebanon, Turkey, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The candidate will play a lead role in the in-depth study of Bangladesh, and will undertake both desk-based and field-based research, in particular legal doctrinal research, empirical legal research (qualitative) in Bangladesh and at UN institutions in Geneva, and archival research (as appropriate).
The candidate is expected to – …. READ MORE