VACANCY: PhD-Fellowship "Legal History and Construction History" (DEADLINE 15 July 2023)

 

(image: the Brussels Grand Place in the seventeenth century; source: Wikimedia commons)

Research group CORE within the Faculty of Law and Criminology and research group ARCH within the Faculty of Architectural Engineering at VUB are looking for a PhD fellow (4 years), starting 1 October 2023.

This vacancy fits within the framework of the EOS research project ‘Construction History, Above and Beyond. What History Can Do for Construction History’, led by professors Michiel Dehaene (UGent), Dave De ruysscher (VUB, Tilburg University), Rika Devos (ULB), Johan Lagae (UGent), Stephanie Van de Voorde (VUB) and Ine Wouters (VUB). A total of 3 PhD fellows and 4 post-doctoral researchers have been appointed on this project. An overview of the full project can be consulted at: www.vub.be/arch/project/eos.

The proposed dialogue between History of Law and History of Construction will focus on the normativity of 'implicit' and 'practical' knowledge in construction in Belgium, during the 19th and 20th centuries. Such knowledge is often enforced through informal rules, in many segments of society. The field of construction history offers promising opportunities to disentangle normativity and informal rules. In litigation, the liability of architects, contractors and even construction workers was tested against 'rules of the trade', rules of implicit, practical knowledge. The sources that can be used range from instructional literature to case law. These sources shed light not only on the appreciation of 'rules of the trade', but also on how jurists categorized 'practical knowledge'.

The PhD project in the dialogue between legal history and construction history will examine cases of liability of architects, contractors and construction workers. The main research questions concern the assessment of practical knowledge in liability and negligence cases, and the differences between the actors involved (i.e. construction professionals versus legal practitioners). The sources used are instructional guides, published case law, legislation, and archival sources. Less studied archives of associations dedicated to expertise and arbitration can also play a crucial role. Part of the research will deal with 'expertise' in these cases, looking at who qualifies as an expert and why. Relatedly, expert reports are expected to reveal how the rules of the trade interacted with the legal rules, since experience in preparing reports for courts requires a minimum degree of knowledge of legal categories and jargon. 

More information: here.