TEMPORALAW @ VUB

TEMPORALAW is hiring!

The Faculty of Law and Criminology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB) is inviting applications for:

Two full-time PhD positions (100%) on climate change and international (human rights) law

Both four-year positions are part of the FWO-funded Odysseus TEMPORALAW project.

1 – Position description

Introducing the TEMPORALAW project

Recent years have seen a rising tide of domestic and international climate litigation, including particularly cases based on human and constitutional rights. The TEMPORALAW project, led by Prof. Corina Heri, investigates how these cases engage with the factor of time. Over the course of five years (2026-2031), the project will engage with the temporal assumptions underlying human rights law, and adjacent legal fields, as exemplified in rights-based climate cases. TEMPORALAW brings together critical, comparative and socio-legal approaches and builds around a central conceptual framework that emphasizes climate-related engagement by the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the International Court of Justice. From this shared starting point, project team members will engage with the legal, epistemic, institutional and political constraints on implementing future-oriented, temporally inclusive approaches in rights-based climate litigation more broadly. This allows the project, in a first step, to make existing temporal assumptions and limitations explicit, and then, in a second step, to propose and practice-test alternative concepts and argumentation strategies. With affiliations to both the Faculty of Law and Criminology and the Department of Water and Climate (HYDR) within VUB, the project is well-positioned to generate science-informed legal insights.

The two PhD researchers in the TEMPORALAW team will engage with legal temporality by examining legal mechanisms for engaging with the past and the future, including the legal, epistemic and institutional barriers to broader or alternative temporal approaches. Within this overarching framing, the two PhD positions each have their own focus:

  • PhD1 has a particular focus on ‘the past’ in rights-based climate litigation. This is envisioned as cutting across human rights law, the law of international responsibility and the international climate regime to examine the legal implications of past actions, normative decisions and inequities (and past greenhouse gas emissions).
  • PhD2 has a particular focus on ‘the future’ in rights-based climate litigation. This topic considers legal constructs relative to adjudicating future risks, including through guarantees of the rights of present generations (e.g. through due diligence obligations) and future ones.

What will your role be?

As a TEMPORALAW PhD team member, you will be an integral part of the Brussels-based research team, as well as designing and implementing your independent PhD project. You will be expected to:

  • collaborate in the construction of the project’s conceptual framework, together with postdoctoral project members;
  • collaborate on select project-based publications and contribute to other project activities, e.g. the organization of project events or research dissemination;
  • independently conduct your own research on legal engagement with ‘the past’ (PhD1) and ‘the future’ (PhD2) of climate change (in the form of a monograph or article-based PhD);
  • co-supervise, in your third and/or fourth year, and together with other team members, a legal clinic group of MA students applying project findings to a concrete case;
  • contribute to academic life at both the Faculty of Law and Criminology and HYDR.

2 – Profile

What does your profile look like?:

  • By the start of the PhD, you hold a Master’s degree or equivalent in law (ideally human rights law, public international law, climate law, or a related field); as well as having
  • good knowledge of discourses surrounding the interface between (human rights) law and climate change;
  • interest in research that combines theory and practice, including by applying critical perspectives to case-law and thinking creatively and comparatively (experience with socio-legal theory and methods is an asset);
  • strong English-language skills;
  • openness to a combination of team-based and independent research.

In addition:

  • You have not performed any work in the execution of a mandate as an assistant, paid from operating resources, over a total (cumulated) period of more than 12 months.
  • As a (non-)EEA national, meet the conditions for obtaining a valid permit for VUB and comply with the VUB residence requirements. More info here.

The VUB wants to reflect a society where everyone’s talent is valued, regardless of gender, age, religion, ethnicity, migration background, disability and neurodiversity.

3 – Offer

What we offer:

  • A fully funded PhD position for 4 years, with a competitive salary (standardized FWO bursary conditions), initially for 12 months (extendable to 48 months on condition of the positive evaluation of the PhD activities);
  • 35 days of annual leave, public transport commuting reimbursement, a telework allowance and hospitalization insurance;
  • the opportunity to conduct cutting-edge research in a dynamic, collaborative team;
  • a flexible starting date (ideally around September 2026, with earlier or later starts possible subject to agreement).

4 – Interested?

Are you interested in joining TEMPORALAW?:

If so, please send your application before the 20th of May 2026 to corina.heri@vub.be with ‘TEMPORALAW PhD application’ in the email subject. This application should consist of a single PDF document that includes:

  1. a motivation/cover letter (max. 1 page), mentioning which of the two PhD topics you would prefer;
  2. your CV, including the contact details of two referees and the title of your Master thesis (if applicable);
  3. a writing sample (published or unpublished);
  4. your Master’s diploma or latest transcript of academic records.

Alternatively, you may also apply via the VUB’s vacancy platform: https://jobs.vub.be/job/Elsene-PhD-position-TEMPORALAW-project/1386884333/.

Tentative timeline for applications:

Interview invitations in early June, interviews in late June (with a possible second round if needed).