PhD Fellowship In Internet Govenance

Three positions as PhD research fellows are available, each for three years, to undertake research as part of the project “Security in Internet Governance and Networks: Analysing the Law” (SIGNAL). The project is funded by the Norwegian Research Council and UNINETT Norid AS. The appointees will work as part of a team at the Norwegian Research Centre for Computers and Law, University of Oslo, in collaboration with an interdisciplinary group of experts from other universities.

The period for each fellowship may be extended up to four (4) years, with teaching, supervision duties and research assistance constituting 25 % of the workload. A prerequisite for such an extension is that the appointee meets the current teaching needs of the Faculty of Law.

The SIGNAL project examines the legal regulatory structures for internet security by focusing on established, new and proposed legal security requirements, at both international and national levels, for critical internet infrastructure and cloud computing. The project has several objectives. These are to assess critically: (i) the degree to which the relevant legal security requirements take sensible account of internet development; (ii) the degree to which these requirements impact upon governance of critical internet infrastructure and cloud computing services; (iii) the extent to which intergovernmental organizations are exercising and able to exercise increasing influence on such governance; (iv) the degree to which the above legal security requirements engender fragmentation of the internet.

Although the focus of SIGNAL is on legal aspects of internet security, much of the research involved will be interdisciplinary, drawing on expertise in socio-economic, technological and political processes, along with law. Moreover, the research will focus not just on legally binding codes (“hard law”) but also a range of “soft law” initiatives (e.g., recommendations, guidelines, memoranda of understandings, technical standards and industry/branch codes of practice). It will also take account of regulatory policy in a variety of jurisdictions.

In assessing the applications, special emphasis will be placed on the applicants’ assumed academic and personal ability to complete their parts of the project within the given time frame, taking particular account of the interdisciplinary and interjurisdictional requirements of the SIGNAL project.

The project language is English and the applicants should therefore have an excellent command of the English language, written and spoken. A good command of a Scandinavian language is also an advantage, though not a condition.

As the project leader will define more precisely the research agendas of the doctoral research fellows, applicants do not need to submit an extensive project proposal. However, applicants are requested to submit a short proposal (maximum 5 pages) sketching how they would tackle the three prongs of the research project as outlined above, in light of the methodological challenges they envisage the research will present.