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Visiting Research Fellows to the AHRC/SCRIPT Centre

The AHRC/SCRIPT Centre seeks applications from scholars working anywhere in the world, in the fields of IT law, IP law, medical law or biotechnology, or any associated fields of interest, to visit at the University of Edinburgh, for periods of anything from two weeks to one year. Applications are equally welcome from established lecturers or professors, from younger colleagues, and industry partners. We are unable to consider applications from current PhD students. Financial assistance is available, although a full salary cannot be paid, nor can benefits as as superannuation. Visitors will be encouraged to teach on Honours and Masters courses given under the auspices of the AHRC Centre, and to take a full part in the intellectual life of the Centre. Suggestions for guest courses for one term or more to be given as part of the LL.M in Innovation, Technology and the Law programme would be particularly welcome.

Requirements

Visitors are encouraged to contribute to the intellectual life of the AHRC/SCRIPT in one or more of the following ways:

• teaching seminars on our honours/masters programme
• delivering public lecture(s)
• offering stand-alone seminars on their research
• writing an article for SCRIPT-ed, our on-line journal
• contributing directly to the research programme of the Centre.

It is asked that potential applicants take account of this in their application. Visiting Research Fellow seminars will be performed by the Fellow under the banner of the AHRC/SCRIPT Centre seminar programme in Edinburgh. The Centre will endeavour as far as is practical to provide any study accommodation, and computing, Internet and library facilities to the Fellow, and assistance will be given to help find accommodation in Edinburgh for the duration of the stay.

The Arts and Humanities Research Council Centre

The AHRC/SCRIPT Centre explores the relationship between law and new technologies, including policy and practical developments, in science, medicine, culture and innovation. It is a major research hub directing international research networks and young scholars in identifying the appropriate balance to be struck between protection and regulation, freedom and privacy, the market and intervention to promote policy objectives such as education and research. In addition to its dynamic and cross-cutting research programme, the Centre fully exploits its technical and legal expertise in the delivery of its teaching and public engagement agenda.

The Centre's Research Programme

After the initial success of Phase 1 (2002-2007), the AHRC/SCRIPT Centre secured further support from the Council to take its work into Phase 2 from 2007-2012. The Phase 2 Centre moves beyond the project-driven approach of Phase 1 to embrace fully its role as an international research hub with clear thematic focus on the creation and development of new paradigms for the legal characterisation of, and response to, the demands and potentials of new technologies.

This involves more direct collaborations towards policy and practice-driven ends, not only with other academic lawyers, but also with scholars from other disciplines, policy-makers, practitioners, business and civil society. Phase 1 revealed the enormous potential which exists for such work within the UK, Europe and the world beyond. Phase 2 translates this potential into actuality, providing collaborative and interdisciplinary, yet practical, scholarship addressing new research questions of economic and social importance and visibly affecting law, policy and practice. A particular aim is to develop a critical mass of scholars working in the relevant fields. As a leading centre, we want the Centre to be attractive to overseas visiting fellows and research postgraduates (especially from developing countries), and it is an explicit focus of our Centre to attract visitors such as these.

A full account of the Centre's Phase 2 projects can be found here.

Informal enquiries may be made to Dr Rachael Craufurd Smith, Senior Lecturer in EC Law (r.c.smith@ed.ac.uk or telephone 0131 650 2006).

The University and the School

The University of Edinburgh is a research and teaching institution of the highest international quality. The Edinburgh Law School will continue to demonstrate, and to enhance, that quality in its research and teaching endeavours. In making appointments the School seeks to ensure that it recruits persona committed to and with the potential to achieve both teaching and research of the highest standard. Further details about the School are set out below and may be followed up in detail on its website, http://www.law.ed.ac.uk.

Each year the School of Law admits around 180 students to the first year of the LLB programme. The Ordinary degree is normally completed in three years, and the honours degree (to which about three quarters of LLB students proceed) in four. At postgraduate level, the Faculty mounts a successful and expanding LLM/MSc programme as well as offering research degrees. In 2001-2 there are 145 postgraduates studying in the School, with 80 admitted to the LLM/MSc and 65 research students.

The School of Law, along with the Law Library and the Europa Library, is housed in the historic premises of Old College in the centre of Edinburgh. On 1 August 1999 its six former Departments (Private Law, Public Law, the Centre for Law and Society, Public International Law, the Europa Institute and the Legal Practice Unit) were amalgamated to form a single School of Law. In 2001-2 there are around 45 full-time academic staff along with a number of part-time lecturers, about 80 part-time tutors, and library, computing, administrative and secretarial staff. There is a congenial working environment which is both lively and productive, with good links between the School and Departments elsewhere in the University including History and Classics. The School contains a number of research centres and has an active and vital culture in both teaching and research. Its libraries are amongst the best law libraries in the UK, and it has an excellent computing and information technology resource.