The Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen (UCPH), invites applications for one or more positions as either Assistant Professor or Associate Professor in global mobility law or related fields to be filled by 1 January 2023 or as soon as possible thereafter.

The positions will be affiliated with the new Center of Excellence on Global Mobility Law (MOBILE), funded by the Danish National Research Foundation. The Center aims to undertake the first comprehensive study of laws pertaining to human mobility as an emerging and societally important field. To this end, MOBILE pioneers a novel approach, focused on legal infrastructure and entanglement theory, to normatively and empirically study the complex interactions of diverse legal regimes impacting human mobility, as well as the interfaces between regional mobility law frameworks in both the Global South and North.

MOBILE’s mission is to provide novel and broadly applicable insights into how different types of law interact, how legal outcomes are produced, and the intended and unintended effects of their enforcement in shaping specific mobility patterns. The Center’s research agenda is organized around three cross-cutting work streams:

• Structures (the composition and interconnectedness of legal infrastructures in key regional systems of mobility, and their relationship to specialised legal regimes such as air and sea travel);
• Practices (the legal and political processes through which legal infrastructures are enforced and contested; and how such practices directly and indirectly structure mobility opportunities);
• Change (how ongoing practices prompt normative change in legal infrastructures, and the conditions under which socio-natural and political events reconfigure mobility law).

Laws related to mobility are found across highly diverse national, regional and international legal regimes, e.g. security, labor, trade, tourism, public health, refugees and human rights. Candidates are expected to have pre-existing experience in one or more fields of law related to human mobility and be willing to devote their research time to help establish global mobility law as a cross-cutting field of study.

The Associate Professor is expected to take a leading role in relation to one of the Center’s three overarching work streams (see above) and to work closely with the Center Director to coordinate work within the work stream and ensure progress in accordance with the Center’s research plan. In their letter of motivation and research plan, candidates are encouraged to clearly indicate how their profile relates to one or more of the work streams. Candidates with pre-existing experience on legal infrastructures, practice theory and legal evolution are particularly welcome.

The Assistant Professor is expected to take a leading role in developing new theory and methods to empirically study global mobility law. This may include both qualitative and quantitative methods. Candidates with pre-existing experience on e.g. social mapping, legal network analysis and computational legal analysis are particularly welcome. The position as assistant professor is limited to 4 years, with possibility of extension.

As a national Center of Excellence, MOBILE aims to create an enabling and interdisciplinary environment for ambitious, highly creative and scientifically daring research. For general information about what a Center of Excellence is and entails, see: https://dg.dk/en/what-is-a-center-of-excellence/.

More information about the new Center of Excellence on Global Mobility Law can be found here: https://jura.ku.dk/english/news/2022/free-movement-new-centre-of-excellence-examines-global-mobility-rights/.

Qualification requirements for Assistant Professors

The position requires scientific qualifications such as a Ph.D. or equivalent within the research area.

An Assistant Professorship is a fixed-term academic position involving both research and teaching. The successful candidate will be obliged to complete a teacher-training course designed especially for assistant professors, and will be expected to be able to take part in all the activities of the Center of Excellence for Global Mobility Law, including examinations and administration.

The duties of the position are evenly distributed on tasks related to teaching and tasks related to research (including relevant administration and knowledge-sharing). Documented competences in both of these main fields of activity, as well as the ability to reflect on them, will be weighted in the assessment process (see further below).

Six overall criteria apply for assistant professor appointments at the University of Copenhagen. The six criteria (research, teaching, societal impact, organisational contribution, external funding and leadership) are considered a framework for the overall assessment of candidates.

Career development at the Faculty of Law requires capability to contribute broadly to the faculty’s study programmes over time.

You can read more about the criteria UCPH criteria here: https://employment.ku.dk/faculty/criteria-for-recognising-merit/.

You can read more about the criteria for recognizing merit for Assistant Professors here.

Qualification requirements for Associate Professors

An Associate Professorship is a permanent academic position involving both research and teaching. The applicant is expected to be able to take part in all the activities of the Center of Excellence for Global Mobility Law, including examinations and administration, and to co-lead the Center’s overall research agenda, lead sub-projects, supervise PhDs and postdocs, support assistant professors and participate in academic assessment panels.

The duties of the position are evenly distributed on tasks related to research and teaching (including relevant administration and knowledge-sharing). Hence the assessment of applicants’ qualifications will assign weight to documented competences in the field of teaching, pedagogy and didactics as in the field of research, research collaboration and research organization. Applicants with documentation of research excellence and/or excellent teaching skills, including experience with development of teaching and with experiences and reflections on how most effectively to integrate research and teaching activities will be given priority.

Six overall criteria apply for associate professor appointments at the University of Copenhagen. The six criteria (research, teaching, societal impact, organizational contribution, external funding and leadership) are considered a framework for the overall assessment of candidates. Furthermore, each candidate must be assessed according to the specific requirements stated in the job advertisement.

The Faculty of Law clearly values the capability or potential to contribute broadly to the faculty’s study programmes.

You can read more about the criteria UCPH criteria here: https://employment.ku.dk/faculty/criteria-for-recognising-merit/.

Find more information for recognizing merit for associate professors here.

Requirements for positions at both levels

Within a reasonable period of time (3-6 years), non-Danish-speaking appointees are expected to acquire proficiency in Danish sufficient to be able to interact with colleagues and students.

For further details about the qualification requirements for assistant and associate professorships, please read the Job Structure for Academic Staff at Universities 2019 here: here

Application 

Submit the application online in Adobe PDF or Word format.

Please note that each field in the application form must only contain a single file of max. 10Mb.

Please click on the “Apply now” icon at the bottom of the page.

Applicants should indicate if they apply at the Assistant Professor or the Associate Professor level.

Letter of motivation, appendixes and the submitted scientific publications, incl. papers, articles and books, must be written in Danish, Swedish, Norwegian or English.

The application MUST include the following 8 elements:

1. Application / letter of motivation
2. Curriculum vitae
3. Diplomas. Documentation of qualifications (degrees/diplomas, PhD diploma etc.)
4. Publications list. Complete numbered list of publications.
5. Teaching portfolio. This must include documentation for teaching qualifications, evaluations as well as a brief statement of the applicant's teaching visions within the research area. For more information regarding teaching portfolio, applicants are encouraged to read the Job application portfolio – University of Copenhagen (ku.dk).
6. Research plan. An outline of planned research activities, including publications plans and plans for applications for external funding. The plan should also document the applicant’s ability to contribute to research in the Center of Excellence on Global Mobility Law, including how research can benefit students in one or more of the Faculty's study programmes.
7. Publications. A maximum of five (5) scientific publications that the applicant wishes to have included in the assessment, of which no more than two (2) may be monographs. Applicants, who have written a PhD thesis or equivalent, must always submit the complete thesis and the written assessment of the thesis as a part of submitted publications if the thesis is written in one of the languages mentioned below. A PhD thesis written in another language may be submitted, but the Assessment Committee is not required to assess the thesis. The submitted research publications must be written in Danish, Swedish, Norwegian or English
8. Co-author declaration. If citing work where the applicant has been a co-author, a co-author declaration, which addresses the applicant's share of these works, must be submitted. Material that has not yet published can be submitted. However, please indicate if this is the case.

Appointment procedure 

After the application deadline, the Dean selects applicants for assessment on the advice of the Appointment Committee. All applicants are then immediately notified whether their application has been accepted for assessment. The Dean subsequently appoints an expert assessment committee tasked with carrying out an assessment of the selected applicants for the specific post. Selected applicants are notified of the composition of the committee. Applicants are ultimately offered the opportunity of commenting on the part of the assessment relating to themselves before the appointment is finalized.

Information

For further information about the positions, please contact Center Director Professor Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen, e-mail: tgh@jur.ku.dk

Further information about the application procedure is available from HR, e-mail: hrsc@hrsc.ku.dk. Please refer to ID number 211-0442/22-2E #1 

Salary and conditions of employment 

Terms of appointment and salary will be in accordance with an agreement between the Ministry of Finance and The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations (AC). For Assistant Professors the salary range starts at DKK 35,600 + a 17,1 % contribution to the pension scheme. For Associate Professors the salary range is DKK 41,400 + a 17,1 % contribution to the pension scheme. It is possible to negotiate salary supplements on an annual basis. A special tax scheme is offered to researchers recruited abroad, read more at this homepage: https://ism.ku.dk/salary-tax-pension/tax/.

If you consider applying from abroad, you may find useful information on how it is to work in Denmark and at UCPH. Find more information here: https://www.nyidanmark.dk/en-GB and https://ism.ku.dk.

The UCPH wishes to encourage everyone interested in this post to apply, regardless of personal background, gender and nationality.

The closing date for applications is September 29, 2022, at 23:59 [*CEST]

Applications or supplementary material received thereafter will not be considered.

The Faculty of Law is one of six faculties at the University of Copenhagen. The Faculty carries out research, education and knowledge dissemination within the area of law. Research is partly organized in research centres and groups with focus on thematic areas of interest. The Faculty employs about 105 researchers and approx. 60 PhD students as well as approx. 70 administrative staff members. In addition, approx. 400 part-time lecturers teach on the legal programmes on which approx. 4,500 students are enrolled. See the Faculty website: https://jura.ku.dk/english for more information.

Part of the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU), and among Europe’s top-ranking universities, the University of Copenhagen promotes research and teaching of the highest international standard. Rich in tradition and modern in outlook, the University gives students and staff the opportunity to cultivate their talent in an ambitious and informal environment. An effective organisation – with good working conditions and a collaborative work culture – creates the ideal framework for a successful academic career.