Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for the project "PublicJustice"

Job description

A Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (SKO 1352) is available as part of the project Rule of Law and the Public Sense of Justice in Norway (PublicJustice), funded by the Research Council of Norway (RCN). The fellow will be responsible for his or her own research and work closely with the PublicJustice team at the Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law, including PI Professor Peter Scharff Smith. The project starts in September 2026 and there will be a project team of five people in Oslo including the postdoctoral fellow. 

The appointment period lasts three years without teaching and administrative duties, or four years with teaching and administrative duties making up 25% of the total workload. A four-year fellowship requires that the candidate can contribute to the Faculty of Law's current teaching needs. If the Postdoctoral Fellow does not already have qualifications that meet the requirements for an associate professor position, UiO shall facilitate the acquisition of such competence during the employment period.

More about the position 

We are currently witnessing a global rule of law recession and basic legal principles often taken for granted in democratic countries, are increasingly questioned and to some extent abandoned. Despite the highly topical nature of these challenges, we lack detailed knowledge of how lawmakers, judges and the public perceive and value the rule of law. PublicJustice aims to remedy this by producing quantitative and qualitative empirical data on how the rule of law is perceived, interpreted and applied within the legislative and judicial branches of the Norwegian Government, and how the Norwegian public perceive and value the rule of law. In doing so, we will be able to compare the public, legislative and judicial understandings of the rule of law.

PublicJustice will examine the legislative branch through in-depth studies of selected parliamentary debates that express underlying values and assumptions about the rule of law, while judicial understandings of the rule of law will be examined through a case study of the written reasoning of supreme court judges. The public’s understanding of the rule of law will be studied by employing a well-known methodology from research on public sentiments on justice in the Nordic countries, which involves conducting extensive surveys and focus groups. 

Taken together, PublicJustice aims to:
1) Increase our understanding of how the rule of law is perceived, observed and applied in the Norwegian state.
2) Deepen our understanding of how the public perceive and value the rule of law.
3) Map, locate and explain differences in how legislators, judges and the Norwegian public perceive and value the rule of law.
4) Contribute to theoretical debates on the rule of law, legal consciousness and public sentiments on justice.
5) Contribute to an informed public debate on the rule of law in Norway and in democracies globally.

The postdoctoral fellow will be a key member of the research team and is expected to work with team members in the study of parliamentarian debates, help set up and execute focus groups, and participate in the analysis of all data and in the writing of publications. The candidate is also expected to engage in international dissemination activities and collaborate with key scholars in the field outside the project group, which includes advisory board members at universities in Oxford, Utrecht and Bergen.

In other words, the candidate is expected to:

• Participate in data collection and coding of data
• Participate in the analysis of data
• Write research articles/publications
• Participate in the dissemination of the project
• Participate in the ongoing reporting from the project
• Assist the PI in the daily operation of the project

Qualification requirements

• The applicant must hold a degree equivalent to a Norwegian doctoral degree (PhD) in Sociology of Law, Criminology, Law, Sociology, Political science or other relevant social science background. 
• The doctoral dissertation must have been submitted for evaluation at the time of application and approved by the time of appointment. 
• The applicants should have an excellent command of Norwegian, alternatively Danish or Swedish, necessary for studying Norwegian parliamentary debates and conducting focus groups, as well as excellent command of English, necessary for publishing in high level journals and participating in international seminars and events
• A demonstrated knowledge of, and experience, working with socio-legal research.
• A demonstrated knowledge of, and experience, working with qualitative methods.

Personal skills

• Applicants must be able to work independently and in a structured manner.
• Applicants should possess good collaboration skills and demonstrate the ability, willingness, and commitment to contribute to the development of the research field.  
• Applicant should be able to take initiative and actively participate in an international and multidisciplinary research team.

Assessment of the applicants

In assessing applicants, priority will be given to their academic achievements, previous relevant publications, the project description, and their professional and personal qualifications, especially regarding their ability to complete the proposed project within the specified timeframe.

Applicants who progress through the selection process will be invited to interview for the position, either in person or digitally.

Applicants are assessed by an assessment committee that ranks them according to the above criteria and interviews the most suitable candidates. A separate interview committee may be used. The final decision is made by the faculty's appointment board.

The applicant must submit a project description but a final plan for the research of the postdoctoral fellow will be developed in consultation with the project leader following the appointment.

We offer

• Exciting and meaningful tasks in an organization with an important societal mission, contributing to knowledge development, education, and enlightenment that promote sustainable, fair, and knowledge-based societal development.
• A workplace with good development and career opportunities.
• Opportunity of up to 1.5 hours a week of exercise during working hours.  
• Committed colleagues and an inspiring, friendly, and inclusive working environment.
• Pension scheme in the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund.
• Good welfare schemes.
• Salary in position as Postdoctoral Research Fellow (SKO 1352) in the range NOK 595 000 – 680 000 depending on competence and experience. From the salary, 2 percent is deducted in statutory contributions to the State Pension Fund.

The application must include

• A cover letter describing the applicant’s qualifications and motivation for the position.
• A project description of 4-7 pages (excluding the list of references) outlining how they would approach their research tasks within a 3-year project plan. This should include a description of the theoretical background, objectives, methodologies, and reflections on potential ethical challenges. The proposal must clearly demonstrate how the research will contribute to the aims of the PublicJustice project. Interested applicants are strongly encouraged to review the project proposal before submitting their project description. Further information can be received from the PI upon request.
• A CV providing a comprehensive overview of education, previous positions, teaching experience, list of publications, and other relevant activities.
• Copies of diplomas with all grades included in the degree and certificates (if the original language of diplomas/certificates is not English or a Scandinavian language, an English language translation must be provided in addition to a copy of the original). Foreign diplomas must include official documentation about the grading system, together with the official grading scale.
• Up to three academic works that the applicant wishes to be considered. If a publication has been authored by multiple individuals, the division of work must be documented with a declaration from the co-author(s).
• Names and contact details for at least two references.
• A written assessment of the doctoral dissertation may also be submitted. If the assessment is not ready in time for the application deadline, the assessment can be submitted after deadline. 

Please note that all documents must be in English or a Scandinavian language. The application with attachments must be submitted through our electronic recruitment system; please follow the link “apply for this job”. The tentative starting date is November 2026.

We need different perspectives in our work 

UiO is an open and internationally oriented comprehensive university that strives to be an inclusive and diverse workplace and academic environment. You can read more about UiO’s work on equality, inclusion, and diversity at uio.no.

We fulfill our mission most effectively when we draw upon our variety of experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives. We are looking for great colleagues—could you be the next one?

We will do our best to accommodate your needs. Relevant adjustments may include modifications to working hours, task adaptations, digital, technical, or physical adjustments, or other practical measures.

If you have an immigrant background, a disability, or CV gaps, we encourage you to indicate this in the job application portal. We always invite at least one qualified candidate from each group for an interview. In this context, disability is defined as an applicant who identifies as having a disability that requires workplace or employment-related accommodations. For more details about the requirements, please refer to the Employer portal (Norwegian).

The selections made in the job application portal are used for anonymized statistics that all state employers include in their annual reports.

More information about gender equality initiatives at UiO can be found here.

We hope you will apply for the position with us. 

Formal regulations

Please see the guidelines concerning appointment to recruitment positions at the University of Oslo. 

No one can be appointed for more than one Postdoctoral Fellowship period at the University of Oslo. 

According to the Norwegian Freedom of Information Act §25 information about the applicant may be included in the public applicant list, also in cases where the applicant has requested non-disclosure. 

The University of Oslo has a transfer agreement with all employees that is intended to secure the rights to all research results etc.