Postdoctoral Research Position in Louvain

The Chair of European Law of the Université Catholique de Louvain is seeking to recruit a postdoctoral fellow for next academic year.

This post is opened in the context of a research project on the relationship between private international law and competition law, which is financed by the European Commission. The work will predominantly focus on collective action/redress issues in civil litigation related to breach of competition law.

The application deadline is June 30, 2009 and the contract would start in September 2009.

The Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL ) was established in 1425 and continues to be committed today to the highest standards in education and research. Located in Louvain-la-Neuve and Brussels, the UCL campuses welcome 21.000 students and employ 5.000 academics, researchers and support staff. In that respect, UCL is by far the largest French-speaking university of Belgium and one of the largest in the world. The UCL law school (located in Louvain-la-Neuve) is as old as the university and offers a full range of law degrees. Many of its faculty members are leaders in their respective fields and are part of European and international research networks.

The Chair of European Law was established in 2007 to further strengthen the law school’s resources in the area of European Union law. In terms of research, the Chair focuses on the study of tools and techniques developed at EU level to manage legal diversity and promote integration. Recently, the Chair has received significant funding from the European Commission to explore and offer solutions to various coordination issues raised by the implementation of EC competition law (Regulation 1/2003) and antitrust litigation, in particular damages claims. The project is carried out in partnership with the “Collège européen” of University Paris II Panthéon-Assas (Professors L. Idot and C. Kessedjian) and the Max Planck Institute for International and Comparative Law (Prof. J. Basedow).

In that framework, the Chair of European Law is seeking to recruit a fulltime Postdoctoral Researcher for a one-year period starting in September 2009. The postdoctoral researcher will be attached administratively to the Charles De Visscher Center for International and European Law, a team of about 15 academics whose research interests cover a broad range of international and European law topics. In practice, he/she will work in close contact with Professor Stéphanie Francq, the holder of the Chair of European Law, and other researchers involved in the project financed by the European Commission.

The position is open for a promising researcher in law of English mother tongue (or fluent in English) interested in undertaking in-depth research in relation to collective action/redress issues in the field of competition law (aside from his/her own research projects). Preference will be given to researchers who have already worked on competition and/or conflict-of-laws issues in the context of the European Union. The position will involve some management tasks (assistance in the organization of a research seminar and an international conference) but no teaching or tutorial assignment.

Candidates for the position must evidence the following qualifications:

A doctorate or equivalent degree in law (or a doctoral manuscript approved before the application deadline)

Research experience and publications commensurate with the stage at which the candidate finds him- or herself in his or her career;

Interest and ability to carry out inter-disciplinary and collective research;

Languages: English mother tongue (or fluency demonstrated by prior professional experience); French (at least passive knowledge) and ideally German (at least passive knowledge).

Terms of employment. Post-graduate research grants at UCL amount to approximately (but not less than) €2000/month (net), depending on seniority, and, depending on the nationality of the recipient, include access to the Belgian welfare system and thus health benefits. The post-graduate researcher will also benefit from private office space, access to modern computing facilities and to the library and other academic resources generally available to faculty members and the scientific staff. In addition, he/she will benefit from the daily interactions with other members of the Charles De Visscher Center for International and European Law and, generally, from access to the whole UCL legal community.

Applications. Applications and accompanying documents should be submitted before June 30, 2009 to the following three addressees: Prof. Stéphanie Francq (Holder of the
Chair of European Law – Stephanie.Francq@uclouvain.be), Prof. March Fallon (President of the Charles De Visscher Center for International and European Law –
Marc.Fallon@uclouvain.be) and Damien Gerard (Research Fellow at the Chair of European Law – Damien.Gerard@uclouvain.be). Applications should indicate how the
candidate meets the requirements set out above and should include a curriculum vitae, copies of sample articles and/or papers and two letters of references. The most promising
candidates will be contacted for a meeting or a telephone interview in early July 2009.

Information. For further questions please contact Ms. Rita Vandenplas, secretary of the Chair of European Law at Rita.Vandenplas@uclouvain.be or +32 (0)10 474773 or Mr
Damien Gerard, Research Fellow at the Chair of European Law: Damien.Gerard@uclouvain.be or +32 (0)10 474768.