PhD Candidate or PostDoc or Research Associate

40-60% / 01.09.2026

The Faculty of Law is one of the oldest of the seven faculties at the University of Basel. It encompasses teaching, research and services in the field of law. It has around 250 staff members and over 1,200 students.
At the Faculty of Law of the University of Basel, as of 1 September 2026 or by arrangement, two positions each at 40-60% are to be filled as PhD Candidate or PostDoc or Research Associate at the Chair of Private Law of Prof. Dr Cordula Lötscher within the framework of the SNSF project "Responsible AI for the Swiss Judiciary".
The project is a collaboration between the University of Basel and ETH Zurich as well as EPFL Lausanne. AI tools are being developed and empirically evaluated for Swiss courts. Legal analysis, technical development and field trials are combined to understand how AI affects judicial decision-making in practice.

Your tasks

• Supporting the chair holder in the research project, assisting with scientific presentations and publications in the fields of judicial research, civil law and civil procedure law with a special focus on digitalisation
• Assisting with teaching and student supervision
• Preparing and conducting own teaching sessions (max. 2 hours per week)
• Assisting with the correction of exams and written assignments
• General organisational and administrative tasks related to the research project and the chair
• As a PhD Candidate: writing a legal dissertation

Your profile

• Very good legal degree (Master or Licentiate)
• Bar admission desired (not mandatory), ideally court experience
• As PostDoc: completed dissertation
• Special interests in the fields of civil procedure law, civil law (ZGB), digitalisation
• Interest in interdisciplinary thinking at the interface of law, computer sciences, economics and ethics
• Optional: special IT affinity, experience with empirical data analysis
• Confident IT (user) skills
• Fluent German and editorial skills, ideally fluent English
• Precise thinking and working style, efficiency, independence
• Organisational skills, initiative and commitment
• Team player

We offer you

• Opportunity for scientific investigation of current issues at the interface between science and practice; interdisciplinary and interuniversity collaboration with economics and computer sciences; cooperation with courts for the further development of the use of AI in the judiciary
• In-depth insights into the research activities of a chair
• Participation and opportunities to shape in a committed and open-minded team
• Opportunities for scientific profiling
• Opportunity to attend specialist conferences
• Employment conditions according to the personnel and salary regulations of the University of Basel