Ph.D. position on Megaconferences and climate governance: a socio-legal history of the 1992 Earth Summit (M/F)

Organisation/Company

CNRS

Department

Centre de Théorie et Analyse du Droit

Research Field

Sociology
Juridical sciences
Criminology

Researcher Profile

First Stage Researcher (R1)

Country

France

Application Deadline

7 Mar 2025 - 23:59 (UTC)

Type of Contract

Temporary

Job Status

Full-time

Hours Per Week

35

Offer Starting Date

1 Apr 2025

Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?

Not funded by a EU programme

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

The person will be attached to CTAD UMR 7074 (Center for Theory and Analysis of Law) in France. A status of researcher participating in the IRL Mondes en transition is possible at the University of São Paulo.

The last thirty years have seen the development of a significant body of normative and institutional standards on the issue of climate change. At international level, climate governance since 1992 has been characterized by centralization around UN institutions, with norm-setting organized around “mega-conferences” bringing together a multitude of state and non-state players. Since then, the development of international environmental law has been punctuated by these mega-conferences - the Stockholm Conference, the Rio Summit, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Conferences of the Parties (COP), etc. - which play a decisive role in shaping international environmental law. - which play a decisive role in setting the international agenda, highlighting and making invisible certain issues, forging alliances and crystallizing geopolitical tensions, and ultimately adopting more or less binding rules. As the climate crisis worsens, mega-conferences are receiving increasing media coverage, but they remain poorly understood not only by the general public, but also by legal experts, who often focus their analyses on legal-technical issues and the state of positive law. To understand the contradictions and limitations of international environmental law, however, it is essential to gain a better understanding of the material, institutional and socio-historical conditions of its development. It is to this better understanding that this thesis project proposes to work, offering a socio-legal analysis of mega-conferences centered on the “matrix mother” of all climate conferences: the 1992 Rio Conference.
The project will involve developing a socio-history of the players involved (national delegations, experts, international civil servants, NGO and corporate representatives) and analyzing their discursive, normative and institutional strategies in the negotiations for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. To this end, the preferred methodology will be archival work within the international institutions, as well as an in-depth legal reading of the work carried out upstream by the preparatory committee in Geneva and New York. This methodology is in line with critical approaches to international law in the light of the Anthropocene. Two avenues of research will be explored. The first is that the contradictions and ambivalences of international environmental law with regard to the fight against climate change are already present in the negotiations at the Rio Conference and in the normative instruments that emerged from them, particularly with regard to the distribution of power at global level and contradictory visions of climate justice.
The second is that the growing influence of transnational corporations on climate law - also known as “corporate capture” - was already in the making in 1992, and constitutes a major structural brake. This research project, historically focused on a seminal moment in international climate change law, also aims to intervene in current debates. It is only by making visible the arguments put forward by both sides, the issues at stake and those that have been overlooked, and the mobilization of private and transnational players, that we will be able to critically assess the conventions, practices and solutions proposed today.

Website

https://emploi.cnrs.fr/Candidat/Offre/UMR7074-ANNMAR-001/Candidater.aspx

Research Field

Sociology

Education Level

Master Degree or equivalent

Research Field

Juridical sciences

Education Level

Master Degree or equivalent

Research Field

Criminology

Education Level

Master Degree or equivalent

Languages

FRENCH

Level

Basic

Research Field

Sociology

Years of Research Experience

1 - 4

Research Field

Juridical sciences

Years of Research Experience

1 - 4

Research Field

Criminology

Years of Research Experience

1 - 4

Under the supervision of Anne-Charlotte Martineau, the doctoral student will contribute to ongoing scientific work by looking at climate governance through a specific prism, namely the socio-legal history of the 1992 Earth Summit. A doctoral thesis will be written in French on the subject. The thesis will be registered with Ecole doctorale 141 at the University of Paris Nanterre.

Website for additional job details

https://emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/Doctorant/UMR7074-ANNMAR-001/Default.aspx

Number of offers available

1

Company/Institute

Centre de Théorie et Analyse du Droit

Country

France

City

NANTERRE

Geofield

City

NANTERRE

Website

https://ctad.cnrs.fr

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