Doctoral student in legal science, specialising in health law - Hiring in process/Finished, not possible to apply

The Faculty of Law is offering one doctoral student position for a Doctor of Laws Degree in legal science.

Research within the doctoral education is conducted in one of the following subjects: jurisprudence, labour law, banking law, private law, EU law, fiscal law, public international law, administrative law, international environmental law, private international law, comparative law, constitutional law, environmental law, human rights, public law, civil and criminal procedure, law and economics, legal history, social and welfare law, and criminal law.

The doctoral student position is funded by the Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program on Humanities and Society (WASP-HS) and integrated into the research project: AICARE - AI and Automated systems and the Right to Health - Revisiting law accounting for the exploitation of users preferences and values. The selected candidate will be both integrated in the WASP-HS graduate school and participate in the activities of the Health Law Research Centre and/or the Commercial Law Centre (ACLU), at the Faculty of Law.

One of the intended supervisors is associate senior lecturer Ana Nordberg.

 
The Doctoral position is part of the Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program on Humanities and Society (WASP-HS) and aims to realize excellent research and develop competence on the consequences and challenges of artificial intelligence and autonomous systems for humanity and society. This 10-year program is initiated and generously funded by the Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation (MMW) with 660 million SEK. In addition to this, the program receives support from collaborating industry and from participating universities. Major goals are more than 10 new faculty positions and more than 70 new PhDs. For more information about the research and other activities conducted within WASP-HS please visit http://wasp-hs.org/.

The WASP-HS graduate school provides foundations, perspectives, and state-of-the-art knowledge in the different disciplines taught by leading researchers in the field. Through an ambitious program with research visits, partner universities, and visiting lecturers, the graduate school actively supports forming a strong multi-disciplinary and international professional network between PhD students, researchers and practitioners in the field. It thus provides added value on top of the existing PhD programs at the partner universities, providing unique opportunities for students who are dedicated to achieving international research excellence with societal relevance.

Throughout the tenure of the doctoral position, the doctoral student will also be embedded in the national WASP-HS graduate school. The WASP-HS graduate school addresses challenges and consequences of autonomous systems and AI in society, and provides integrated training in philosophy, social science, policy research, organisational science, psychology, and other humanities and social science disciplines, together with a sound knowledge of the technical aspects of AI, software and autonomous systems. The graduate school takes a cohort-based approach bringing together students from a wide variety of backgrounds in interdisciplinary teams to address real problems taking account of the individual, societal, and ethical implications.

The school aims to achieve an active community of researchers across Sweden through courses, joint study trips and summer- and winter seminars. Doctoral students in the WASP-HS program are expected to work together with researchers on the WASP-AI and WASP-AS programs.
The Doctoral student will be part of the WASP-HS Graduate School, joining interdisciplinary doctoral students across Sweden in the 2nd cohort Graduate School program, starting in February 2022 and is required to take part in all the GS activities and follow a minimum of four WASP-HS graduate school courses.

The doctoral project will focus on investigating how the introduction of AI in healthcare and automated systems challenges the existing legal and ethical norms that regulate health care and health related activities, services and products. Its main aim is to address how current norms could and/or should be improved, either through revision or reinterpretation, or complemented by new measures in a manner that will safeguard the attainability of the highest possible standard of health. The doctoral project main focus is AI for personalised medicine and will produce legal analysis on both legal and regulatory approaches to technology governance and policy and the right to health.

Being part of a large research project, the doctoral project is expected to contribute to the AICARE project aims and research questions. These focus on each of the four essential elements of the right to health - how are these impacted by the introduction of AI in healthcare and what strategies will allow to overcome eventual barriers – and address general regulatory aspects on how to enhance or complement existing legal mechanisms and governance structures in order to provide propitious conditions to the implementation of AI in healthcare.

The doctoral project should analyse and interconnect different areas of law and regulation relevant to the implementation of AI in healthcare from the perspective of advancing personalised/precision medicine. While focusing mainly on quality of healthcare, and as such is located at the intersection between Health Law and Commercial Law, it may encompass analysis pertaining to for example: constitutional law and human rights law; data protection and personal integrity law; incentives to innovation, intellectual property, trade secrets law; contract law, data ownership and regulation; consumer protection, liability rules, regulatory frameworks and governance models for medical devices and products. It should also include ethical, economic and/or other societal perspectives.

Thus, possible research areas include, but are not limited to:
- Data protection and ethical issues raised by genetic sequencing from both the perspective of patients and public health
- Clinical trials, certification and marketing approval of AI healthcare solutions for PM
- The role and governance models for intellectual property and trade secrets enforcement
- Liability mechanism’s role in the protection of patient integrity.

Job assignments

Those appointed to doctoral studentships shall primarily devote themselves to their studies.

Those appointed to doctoral studentships may, however, work to a limited extent with educational tasks, research and administration. Before a doctorate has been awarded, however, duties of this kind may not comprise more than 20 per cent of a full-time post. (Higher Education Ordinance chapter 5 section 2)

The researchers and teachers at the Faculty are expected to contribute to a dynamic research environment as well as to other Faculty activities, and to perform work primarily in the workplace provided by the Faculty.

Eligibility/Entry Requirements

Only those who are or have been admitted to third-cycle courses and study programmes at a higher education may be appointed to doctoral studentships. (Higher Education Ordinance chapter 5 section 3)

A person meets the general entry requirements for third-cycle courses and study programmes if he or she:

1. has been awarded a second-cycle qualification,
2. has satisfied the requirements for courses comprising at least 240 credits of which at least 60 credits were awarded in the second-cycle, or
3. has acquired substantially equivalent knowledge in some other way in Sweden or abroad. (Higher Education Ordinance chapter 7 section 39)

The special requirements are fulfilled by those who have completed a law programme and obtained the degree Master of Laws (juris kandidatexamen/juristexamen). The special requirements may also be fulfilled by those who can demonstrate other educational or particular professional experience where this is judged to provide the necessary qualification for doctoral studies comparable to that provided by the degree of Master of Laws (juris kandidatexamen/juristexamen) regarding both the subject for doctoral study and general legal education of importance for that subject.

Applicants with Swedish juristexamen/juris kandidatexamen degrees must have attained a grade average of Ba in the compulsory courses of the undergraduate programme. Applicants holding other degrees must have attained in principle an equivalent grade average in comparable portions of the degree programme. Only where very special circumstances apply may the Faculty Board approve exemptions from this rule.

The applicant must have obtained the degree of Master of Laws or the equivalent no later than 22 September 2021.

Basis of Assessment

For regulations concerning employment of Doctoral Students etc, see Higher Education Ordinance chapter 5 sections 1-7.
For regulations concerning admission to third-cycle courses and study programmes, see Higher Education Ordinance chapter 7 sections 34-41.
Admittance of a doctoral student is based on an assessment of the candidate’s ability to benefit from third-cycle studies (Higher Education Ordinance chapter 5 section 5, chapter 7 sections 35, 41).

The applicant’s ability to benefit from third-cycle studies and research will be assessed with reference to the selection criteria stated in the general study plan for third-cycle studies at the Faculty of Law, which are given in no particular order of importance.

The applicant's general competence:

- quality and content of the applicant's previous written work, such as a master's thesis
- ability to participate actively in the faculty´s research environment
- relevant educational background and grades/grade average
- relevant work experience

The scientific quality of the project description:

- ability to describe, question and discuss the current state of research
- sufficient clarity and logical coherence in the formulation of the aim and the research
questions
- stringency of legal reasoning and analysis
- adequate selection of theory and methods
- capacity for creativity and innovation in the formulation of the research questions and
approaches
- clear expression and sufficient detail

Appointment Procedure

The application should be submitted through Lund University job application portal.
Your application should contain a curriculum vitae, grade transcripts, project description, a master thesis or similar degree projects, one or two references (manager, supervisor etc.) and other documents that you wish to submit.

The applicant's project description should identify the objectives of the doctoral project, suggest proposed research questions, provide information on favoured methodological / theoretical approaches to the study of the proposed questions and contextualise the proposed project with reference to relevant legal regulations and the current state of research. In the project description, the applicant should also describe his or her knowledge, abilities and experiences of relevance to the doctoral project and its successful implementation.

The project description, enclosed in the electronic application, must not exceed 15 000 characters (n.b. - any text that exceeds the 15 000 character limit will not be considered) including spaces, footnotes, list of references and must be written in English, Swedish, Danish, or Norwegian. (see).
Please refer to the Guidelines for Project description for guidance, but please note that in this case the general framework of the doctoral project already follows from the larger research project.
For further questions, please contact Ana Nordberg (ana.nordberg@jur.lu.se).

The Committee on Doctoral Education will call a limited number of candidates to interviews to be held during week 46, either by personal meetings or by video conference/telephone. Notification regarding who will be called for an interview is given no later than 14 October. The interview will be based on the project description and is intended to give the research committee an opportunity to gauge each applicant's capacity for research and ability to complete the project described.

Type of employment

Limit of tenure, four years according to HF 5 kap 7§.