JOB: Doctoral Position Research project: ‘A Tsunami or a Gentle Tide? European Legal Thought Confronted with the French Commercial Code of 1807’ (Gdańsk: University of Gdańsk, DEADLINE: 19 APR 2024)

 

(image: Sekt. 4: Gdańsk, Polen, 1892 - Deutsche Fotothek, Germany - CC BY-SA. Europeana)

The University of Gdańsk currently has  a PhD vacancy for a legal history research project.

The position does not require relocation to Gdańsk.

1 - Position description

The Faculty of Law, University of Gdańsk, is looking for a PhD-student. 

This vacancy fits within the framework of the Polish National Science Center (NCN) research project “A Tsunami or a Gentle Tide? European Legal Thought Confronted with the French Commercial Code of 1807”, directed by assistant professor Anna Klimaszewska.

The overall scientific objective of the envisaged research is to examine the framing that legislators impose through codes of law by reconstructing how the French Commercial Code (FCC) of 1807 actually resonated in European legal thought and how it affected European legal discourse in the 19th- century in a thoroughly source-based manner through the use of digital tools, free of Western European centralism and national subjectivism.

How people interpret and process information is very much influenced by the way the piece of information is communicated - what narrative has been adopted. This is used, for example, by politicians and the mass media, providing through their narratives a specific “frame” for the social perception of various phenomena. Researchers have been studying these issues for decades. However, no one has so far verified the impact of the framework imposed by the legislator on various spheres of our lives, who, when making the law, introduces a more pervasive and complex frame than, for example, those freely created by the participants in political debates.

The activity of the legislator manifests itself in various forms. However, there is no doubt that codes of law play a special role in it. This is not only because they are systematic and comprehensive collections of rules. Above all, they constitute (at least in concept) the main point of reference in a given domain and carry a strong ideological charge behind them, thus establishing a frame for a given field of social activity.

The goal of the project is to analyse, for the first time, the effect of a frame imposed by the legislator through a code of law in varying social and economic conditions. Through a comparative analysis of case studies from different legal cultures, it will be reconstructed how the world's first modern commercial code - the French Code of 1807 issued by order of Napoleon Bonaparte - resonated in European legal thought and how it influenced European legal discourse in the 19th century. With no competition for many decades, it significantly influenced legal systems around the world. Its “framing effect” in different countries will therefore be compared.

Through the use of interdisciplinary methodology (discourse network analysis, frame analysis) and digital tools, this research creates an entirely new approach to law, thus paving the way for similar research to be carried out on other areas of the law of any country and era.

The backbone of the research, for reasons of feasibility, consists of three in-depth case studies: Belgium (subproject 1), Poland (subproject 2), and Germany (subproject 3). These countries serve as a theoretically informed sample that will allow some general conclusions to be drawn regarding the evolution of legal thought under the influence of the FCC whilst likewise stressing that each case study is complex and unique in its own right. All of them have experienced the implementation of the FCC. Each of them represents, however, a different strategy towards its adoption in different regional circumstances. They show thus varying trajectories of reaction to the code as a frame, as framing effects may occur in different populations at different rates.

This particular vacancy covers subproject 3 and is co-supervised by profs. Anna Klimaszewska (University of Gdańsk) and Mathias Schmoeckel (University of Bonn).

Although Germany, as Europe's largest codification laboratory, was creatively pursuing a direction in the field of commercial law that, almost a century after the promulgation of the FCC (with the 1897 Commercial Code), was considered to be in competition with the French model, the Germans were not operating in a legislative vacuum. The FCC was not only officially introduced in the Rhineland, thus marking the area with the experience of direct application, but also over the decades of work on a uniform German commercial code, which was carried out long before the unification of Germany, the FCC was repeatedly taken into account, even if not as a role model, certainly as a point of reference. Moreover, the 1897 Code’s predecessor, the 1861 General German Commercial Code, followed France to many more points than is commonly believed.

The PhD project will investigate the following sources: 1. Any form of publication by authors commenting on or referring to substantive or formal issues regarding the FCC in the form of, inter alia, monographs, textbooks, articles, collections of court judgments, essays, treatises, comments, diaries, press materials, notes of lectures by university professors, etc. 2. Codification projects and reports of parliamentary debates on codification; 3. Materials of governmental bodies concerning partial reforms of the commercial law, e.g., justifications for projects and reports of the parliamentary reporters (stenographic): the originals have not always been preserved.

About the position:

-        The doctoral position is funded by a 4-year NCN research project and is offered as a bursary position. The project additionally covers expenses related to research queries, participation in conferences, publications, etc., as well as running costs.

-        You will benefit from the interaction with the entire team, an Advisory Committee of professors from France, Belgium and Germany and the visibility of research results produced by the whole team.

2 - What do we expect from you?

-       Master degree in Law;

-       proficiency in English;

-       proficiency in German;

-       expertise in historical research and affinity for legal and/or institutional history is a plus;

-       good editing skills, to be demonstrated by a sample of writing: a copy of the master thesis and/or a research paper;

-       good team working and social skills;

-       interest in participating in international congresses;

-       passion for research in the above-mentioned domain, including archival research.

 

 

3 - Offer

You’ll be offered a full-time doctoral position for 48 months and the remuneration of PLN 60,000 per year (including employer's costs),

At the University of Gdańsk, you’re guaranteed an open, involved, and diverse workplace where you are offered opportunities to (further) build on your career.

4 - Interested?

Send us ONLINE and at the latest on 19/04/2024:

-        Motivation letter (in English, max. 500 words), mentioning also the contents of the application file;

-        Curriculum vitae with a list of publications if available;

-        Copy of the diploma (if graduated) and grade record of master studies;

-        A sample of writing: your master thesis (if finished) and/or your best research paper (individual work);

-        Annexes, if relevant (awards, certificates, etc.)

-        Consent for the University of Gdańsk to process personal data necessary for recruitment.

Interviews are planned for April 2024.

Do you have questions about the job content?

Contact Anna Klimaszewska at anna.klimaszewska@prawo.ug.edu.pl or at +48-502-290-098.

 

Further information and the GDPR consent statement is available at:

https://prawo.ug.edu.pl/dzialalnosc-naukowa/oferty-dla-wykonawcow-projektow-naukowych