The PhD position will be at the Chair for Legal Tech, Law and Economics, and Public Law (Prof. Dr. Dr. Yoan Hermstrüwer). The chair provides a genuinely interdisciplinary and international work environment. Our team is committed to exploring a wide range of social, economic and political issues bearing on all areas of the law. Our research projects rest on experimental methods, econometric analysis, and methods from data science (machine learning and NLP) more generally.

Your resposibilities:
• You conduct research projects in the field of law and economics, empirical legal studies, or legal data science. These projects will be part of a monographic or cumulative PhD dissertation.

• You explore legal problems (e.g. judicial decision-making, legal AI, Swiss public law, EU law, international law) ideally using empirical methods (e.g. observational or experimental data), or methods from economics or data science more broadly (e.g. machine learning, NLP).

• You are willing to integrate a highl international environment and contribute to intellectual debates at the Chair.

Your Profile:
• You hold an excellent degree in law and optionally a degree in social science (e.g. economics, psychology), or in a related discipline. Applicants who do not hold a law degree need to demonstrate a keen interest in the law and interdisciplinary approaches to law.

• You have (ideally advanced) data analysis skills (e.g. using Python, R, Stata), or you are willing to invest in developing your data analysis skills.

• You have excellent analytical skills and are willing to collaborate on research projects at the Chair.

• You are proificient in English and ideally another language (e.g. German, French, Italian), and are motivated to contribute to research in a genuinely interdisciplinary and international environment.

We offer:
This position offers the possibility to develop cutting-edge research ideas at the interface of law, economics, psychology and data science. The work environment at the Chair is international and welcomes applications contributing to an even more diverse environment on a personal level and in terms of approaches used to tackle legal and social problems. We offer flexible working hours, and several opportunities to learn about interdisiclinary research and connect to an international netwwork of researchers.

Place of work:
University of Zurich, Faculty of Law, Rämistreet 74, 8001 Zurich

Start of employment:
The PhD position is available immediately. The specific starting date can be mutually agreed upon. The position is limited to three years and offers SNF conditions.

Please submit your application, consisting of a motivation letter and a CV, in a single pdf file until August 31, 2026 (23:59 PM CET)

Further information:
Please attach the following documents in a single pdf file to the application form:
• a detailed CV including - if applicable - relevant publications;
• a detailed project proposal;
• academic transcripts obtained during your studies.

The project proposal should be structured as follows:
1. Problem statement: please explain the background of the proposal, the problem you intend to address in your research (max. 500 words);
2. Research question: please describe the main research question you intend to explore (max. 300 words);
3. Method: please specificy the research design, the methods and explain the link between the proposed research questions and the methodology (max. 1000 words);
4. Contribution: please explain how your research will contribute to the existing body of knowledge and connect to the literature (max. 600 words);
5. Feasibility: please provide an approximate time schedule, and briefly provide a feasibility assessment (e.g. some data you need may not easily be available).

Please send your application to Prof. Dr. Dr. Yoan Hermstrüwer at lst.hermstruewer@ius.uzh.ch.

The PhD position will be at the Chair for Legal Tech, Law and Economics, and Public Law (Prof. Dr. Dr. Yoan Hermstrüwer). The chair provides a genuinely interdisciplinary and international work environment. Our team is committed to exploring a wide range of social, economic and political issues bearing on all areas of the law. Our research projects rest on experimental methods, econometric analysis, and methods from data science (machine learning and NLP) more generally.

Your resposibilities:
• You conduct research projects in the field of law and economics, empirical legal studies, or legal data science. These projects will be part of a monographic or cumulative PhD dissertation.

• You explore legal problems (e.g. judicial decision-making, legal AI, Swiss public law, EU law, international law) ideally using empirical methods (e.g. observational or experimental data), or methods from economics or data science more broadly (e.g. machine learning, NLP).

• You are willing to integrate a highl international environment and contribute to intellectual debates at the Chair.

Your Profile:
• You hold an excellent degree in law and optionally a degree in social science (e.g. economics, psychology), or in a related discipline. Applicants who do not hold a law degree need to demonstrate a keen interest in the law and interdisciplinary approaches to law.

• You have (ideally advanced) data analysis skills (e.g. using Python, R, Stata), or you are willing to invest in developing your data analysis skills.

• You have excellent analytical skills and are willing to collaborate on research projects at the Chair.

• You are proificient in English and ideally another language (e.g. German, French, Italian), and are motivated to contribute to research in a genuinely interdisciplinary and international environment.

We offer:
This position offers the possibility to develop cutting-edge research ideas at the interface of law, economics, psychology and data science. The work environment at the Chair is international and welcomes applications contributing to an even more diverse environment on a personal level and in terms of approaches used to tackle legal and social problems. We offer flexible working hours, and several opportunities to learn about interdisiclinary research and connect to an international netwwork of researchers.

Place of work:
University of Zurich, Faculty of Law, Rämistreet 74, 8001 Zurich

Start of employment:
The PhD position is available immediately. The specific starting date can be mutually agreed upon. The position is limited to three years and offers SNF conditions.

Please submit your application, consisting of a motivation letter and a CV, in a single pdf file until August 31, 2026 (23:59 PM CET)

Further information:
Please attach the following documents in a single pdf file to the application form:
• a detailed CV including - if applicable - relevant publications;
• a detailed project proposal;
• academic transcripts obtained during your studies.

The project proposal should be structured as follows:
1. Problem statement: please explain the background of the proposal, the problem you intend to address in your research (max. 500 words);
2. Research question: please describe the main research question you intend to explore (max. 300 words);
3. Method: please specificy the research design, the methods and explain the link between the proposed research questions and the methodology (max. 1000 words);
4. Contribution: please explain how your research will contribute to the existing body of knowledge and connect to the literature (max. 600 words);
5. Feasibility: please provide an approximate time schedule, and briefly provide a feasibility assessment (e.g. some data you need may not easily be available).

Please send your application to Prof. Dr. Dr. Yoan Hermstrüwer at lst.hermstruewer@ius.uzh.ch.