The Digital Legal Studies Experience: Searching in the dark to be expected. Struggles likely. Impactful results ensured. As an assistant professor, you will have a diverse set of responsibilities. You will teach, conduct innovative and high-quality research, write research proposals, and participate in administrative activities.

In the coming years, the Faculty will make an extra investment in two research themes: 'Digital legal studies: building technology for law’ and ‘Law in a globalizing society: regulation and protection’. The assistant-professor is expected to do research on one of these two themes (see attachment).

Law and technology research can be divided into Law for Technology research (e.g. privacy, liability for self-driving cars, legal status of blockchain) and Technology for Law research. The Digital Legal Studies research focuses on the latter, as it aims to apply Data Science methods to the legal domain in order to unravel the “Legal DNA” of the law. The Digital Legal Studies research takes on the ambition to develop a research infrastructure that allows applying artificial intelligence to analyze case law in order to answer legal research questions and to solve legal problems (academic and societal). You are particularly encouraged to apply if you are interested in developing legal ontologies, criteria for the assessment of legal data quality, knowledge graphs, network analysis, text mining, or similar topics. Legal research that is mostly doctrinal does not fit the goals of this vacancy.

You will be offered the opportunity to collaborate with legal researchers and data scientists, and to apply (and learn) data science methods and solutions in relation to the legal domain. The research takes place within the Maastricht Law & Tech Lab, an exciting and vibrant community where legal scholars and data scientists meet and form interdisciplinary teams that work at the intersection of Law and Data Science.

Teaching: Teaching will take place at the bachelor and master level. You will contribute to the development and execution of courses in the field of Private Law.

Matching Skills and Competencies:

• PhD degree in Law (or having obtained a PhD degree at the time of appointment);
• Expertise in Private Law and some expertise in data science;
• Ability to teach in English and, if applicable, willingness to learn Dutch;
• Interest in developing interdisciplinary education (Law and Computer science);
• Community-friendly team player;
• Optional: geek-friendly.

Fixed-term contract: 5 years.

You will be employed temporarily as assistant professor (level 2) and agree to specific development goals. Five years after appointment, or earlier as soon as the development goals are met, you are promoted to assistant professor (level 1) in a permanent position. On your request, the decision can be deferred in case of special personal circumstances, such as pregnancy leave, parental leave, or chronic illness.

The salary depends on academic qualifications and experience. The salary will be set between minimum gross month salary € 3.637,00 of salary scale 11 (according to assistant professor 2) and maximum gross month salary of € 5.656,00 of salary scale 12 (according to assistant professor 1), based on a full-time employment, of the Collective Labour Agreement of the Dutch Universities. For people recruited from abroad a reduced income tax rate may apply.

More information on terms of employment of the university can be found on: www.maastrichtuniversity.nl > Support > Employees.

Maastricht University is renowned for its unique, innovative, problem-based learning system, which is characterized by a small-scale and student-oriented approach. Research at UM is characterized by a multidisciplinary and thematic approach, and is concentrated in research institutes and schools. Maastricht University has around 16,300 students and 4,300 employees. Reflecting the university's strong international profile, a fair amount of both students and staff are from abroad. The university hosts 6 faculties: Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Faculty of Law, School of Business and Economics, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience.

http://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/

The Faculty of Law of Maastricht University provides challenging and high-quality legal education for Bachelor's and Master's students. The faculty is a pioneer in small-scale and innovative education and trains lawyers for both the national and international labor market. The faculty is among the top 50 law schools worldwide and, with 51% foreign students, is the most international legal faculty in Europe. It has 3000 students and more than 300 employees.

The research within the faculty is conducted within one of the faculty research institutes and the Maastricht Graduate School of Law. The focus of the research is on European and international aspects of law, human rights, migration and Law & Tech. The faculty attaches great importance to both fundamental and more practical research and is known for its stimulating research climate.

The Department of Private Law consists of a dynamic group of researchers and lecturers. Colleagues describe the Department as an exciting, inspiring, and diverse yet inclusive environment that fosters professional development, ambition, and innovative research in the field of private law. The atmosphere is one of academic freedom. Support for grant applications is provided.

You will be able to engage in a variety of other activities both within and beyond the Law Faculty, be they educational, managerial, strategic or extra-curricular. You will need to possess the energy and ideas to meet what is a highly stimulating and rewarding challenge, sustained by experienced and supportive colleagues as well as motivated students.