Programme Title: Sociology of Authoritarian Law: Insights from Central Asia (SOCIAL)
Funding: Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska‑Curie Doctoral Networks
Start: September 2025 | Duration: 48 months | Deadline: January 31, 2026
Consortium: 14 leading universities across Europe & Canada
Programme Synopsis
SOCIAL‑DN trains 17 doctoral candidates (DC) in the sociology of authoritarian law, with a regional focus on Central Asia. Its three core goals are:
- Empirical & theoretical innovation on law–society–governance dynamics under authoritarian regimes.
- Sustainable interdisciplinary doctoral training across disciplines and regions.
- Policy outreach, converting research into actionable intelligence via workshops, publications, and policy briefs.
Doctoral candidates will be hosted at one of 14 partner organisations within the network. Doctoral candidates will benefit from joint supervision, inter-sectoral secondments, strong transferable skills development, and a bridge between academic research and policy practice. Fieldwork and secondments constitute integral components of the SOCIAL Doctoral Programme. Accordingly, all PhD candidates admitted to the programme are required to undertake fieldwork and secondment in Central Asia as part of their doctoral training and research activities.
To read more about the SOCIAL project please see: https://www.soclaw.lu.se/en/index.php/article/sociology-law-department-leads-eu55m-eu-funded-research-authoritarian-law-and-legality-central-asia
Mandatory requirements for all 17 PhD Positions
To be eligible, Doctoral Candidates must have obtained a degree which formally entitles them to start a doctorate, either in the country in which the degree was obtained or in the country in which the researcher is recruited.
In addition, Doctoral Candidates cannot have been awarded a doctoral degree and/or completed more than four years of full-time equivalent research experience.
Doctoral Candidates must not have resided or carried out their main activity (i.e. work, studies) in the hosting country for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately before the recruitment date.
The successful candidates will be required to work in a team, to travel to conferences and network training events, and to take part in an academic and non-academic secondment abroad.
All Doctoral Candidates are required to undertake two secondments abroad, one academic and one non-academic, of between two and six months duration.
For further information on eligibility criteria and on Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Networks in general, please refer to: Doctoral Networks – Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions.
PhD Position Details
DC1 – Authoritarian Legal Harmonization
- Host: Södertörn University (Sweden)
- Focus: Explore how international frameworks shape legal harmonization in authoritarian regimes.
- Description: This DC project investigates how legal norms are diffused and harmonized across authoritarian regimes in Central Asia. It focuses on the growing influence of regional organizations like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Eurasian Economic Union (EAEC), and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in shaping legal convergence through non-democratic pathways. The doctoral candidate will explore how these regional actors challenge Western liberal-democratic legal norms, contributing to a contested and evolving legal landscape in the region. The project aims to highlight the tensions between authoritarian legal models and Western governance agendas.
Application details and procedures can be found here: https://www.sh.se/english/sodertorn-university/meet-sodertorn-university/this-is-sodertorn-university/vacant-positions
DC2 – Myths vs Realities in Legal Reforms
- Host: University of Birmingham (UK)
- Focus: Contrast public reform narratives with actual legal outcomes under authoritarian elites.
- Description: This DC project examines the contradictory nature of legal reforms in Central Asia. Some reforms aim to entrench authoritarian rule through constitutional engineering, while others introduce mechanisms aligned with international standards—such as administrative courts and accountability structures. The PhD candidate will analyze these dual-track reforms, assessing how they are perceived by citizens, how they are enforced by institutions, and evaluating their implications for governance and rule of law.
Application details and procedures can be found here: https://edzz.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/CandidateExperience/en/sites/CX_6001/job/8258/?utm_medium=jobshare&utm_source=External+Job+Share
DC3 – Corporate Transparency & Corruption
- Host: University of Toronto (Canada)
- Focus: Link corporate disclosure norms to patterns of grand corruption.
- Description: This DC project explores the relationship between corporate disclosure, transparency, and grand corruption in Central Asia. It examines how legal frameworks and institutional practices shape corporate accountability, and how transparency norms are interpreted or subverted under authoritarian governance. The research will generate a comparative database and case studies, analyzing how companies and regulators navigate disclosure obligations in environments marked by systemic corruption.
Application details and procedures can be found here (please click on “Doctoral student opportunity”): https://www.crimsl.utoronto.ca/people/directories/all-faculty/matthew-light
DC4 – Politics of Anti-Corruption
- Host: Turiba University (Latvia)
- Focus: Examine local adoption and manipulation of international anti-corruption standards.
- Description: This DC project investigates how international anti-corruption frameworks are interpreted and applied in Central Asia’s authoritarian legal systems. The research will unpack how global norms—rooted in Western legal traditions—are adapted, contested, or resisted by domestic institutions shaped by collectivist values and legal nihilism. The doctoral candidate will engage in fieldwork examining the implementation and local meaning of anti-corruption practices and agencies.
Application details and procedures can be found here:
DC5 – Corruption in Public Procurement
- Host: Marmara University (Turkey)
- Focus: Identify informal procurement practices in national and donor-funded contracts.
- Description: Focusing on corruption in public procurement processes in Central Asia, this DC project investigates the gaps and tensions between national and international compliance cultures. It will analyze how informal practices intersect with official procurement policies, particularly those tied to international financial institutions. The candidate will study case examples including pandemic-related procurement to identify vulnerabilities and policy reform opportunities.
Application details and procedures can be found here:
DC6 – Executive By-Laws & Authoritarian Governance in Central Asia
- Host: Lund University (Sweden)
- Focus: Analyze how decrees and by-laws centralize authoritarian power.
- Description: This DC project explores how by-laws and normative acts—often beyond the scope of parliamentary oversight—are used in authoritarian regimes to regulate public life. The research will investigate legal fragmentation, governance mechanisms, and informal hierarchies within Central Asia’s legal systems.
Application details and procedures can be found here: https://lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/jobID:870095/
DC7 – Traditional Courts & State Law
- Host: Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (Germany)
- Focus: Study interactions between aksakal and formal court systems.
- Description: This DC project examines the interaction between traditional courts (e.g., aksakal) and state legal systems in Central Asia, past or present. The project will assess the political use of jurisdictional pluralism and explore how informal justice mechanisms operate in contested or hybrid legal environments.
Application details and procedures can be found here:
DC8 – Political Connections & Access to Economic Resources
- Host: University of the West of England (UK)
- Focus: Trace how networks and corruption influence access to scarce economic resources.
- Description: Investigating how corruption and political networks influence access to scarce economic resources (e.g. bank credit) in authoritarian economies, this DC project will use fieldwork and survey methods to analyze stakeholder experiences, institutional practices, and the fairness and efficiency of resource allocation in key economic sectors.
Application details and procedures can be found here: Doctoral Researcher
DC9 – Administrative Law & Regime Legitimacy
- Host: Malmö University (Sweden)
- Focus: Investigate administrative law reforms as instruments of authoritarian legitimacy.
- Description: This DC project studies administrative law reform as a mechanism of authoritarian legitimation. It will examine the role of legal frameworks, judicial practices, and institutional cultures in shaping public perceptions of legal accountability and legitimacy in Central Asia.
Application details and procedures can be found here:
DC10 – Anti-Money Laundering Compliance in Authoritarian States
- Host: Estonian Business School (Estonia)
- Focus: Assess anti‑money‑laundering frameworks and enforcement pathways.
- Description: This DC project focuses on anti-money laundering (AML) frameworks in Central Asia. It will evaluate compliance mechanisms, enforcement levels, and the alignment of AML norms with international expectations in environments marked by political centralization and opacity.
Application details and procedures can be found here:
https://info.ebs.ee/hubfs/EBS%20Project%20based%20PhD%20Call%20Deadline%2031.01.26.pdf?hsLang=en
DC11 – Security Narratives & Legal Change
- Host: University of Birmingham (UK)
- Focus: Study how securitization drives constitutional/legal reforms.
- Description: This DC project explores how security discourses—such as counterterrorism and digital surveillance—drive constitutional and legal reforms in authoritarian regimes. The research will study how law is instrumentalized to expand executive power and suppress dissent.
Application details and procedures can be found here:
DC12 – “Outside the Law” Legal Mobilization in Central Asia
- Host: Lund University (Sweden)
- Focus: Examine how civil society actors use non-state means to claim rights and justice.
- Description: This DC project analyzes how individuals and communities mobilize for rights and justice through non-state and extra-institutional channels. It will focus on local activism, digital advocacy, and informal justice initiatives in authoritarian contexts.
Application details and procedures can be found here: https://lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/jobID:869875/
DC13 – Legal Pluralism & Anti-Corruption
- Host: University of Groningen (Netherlands)
- Focus: Understand dynamics across plural legal systems in corruption control.
- Description: This DC project investigates how actors navigate competing legal systems to combat corruption in Central Asia. The project will assess whether legal pluralism enhances or obstructs anti-corruption effectiveness in hybrid governance settings.
Application details and procedures can be found here:
DC14 – Legal Nihilism & Distrust
- Host: Charles University Prague (Czechia)
- Focus: Probe causes and consequences of societal mistrust in formal law.
- Description: This DC project examines why legal nihilism persists in post-socialist authoritarian societies. It will explore public perceptions of law, informal legal practices, and how legal mistrust affects social order and compliance.
Application details and procedures can be found here:
DC15 – Legal Education Reform
- Host: Vilnius University, Institute of International Relations and Political Science (Lithuania)
- Focus: Critique post-socialist legal education and promote critical/sociological approaches.
- Description: This DC project focuses on legal education in Central Asia, investigating its role in promoting critical thinking and socio-legal inquiry. The candidate will analyse the nature and forms of legal education in the context of authoritarian regimes assessing curricula, pedagogy, and institutional resistance to reform.
Application details and procedures can be found here: https://www.tspmi.vu.lt/en/projektas/sociology-of-authoritarian-law-insights-from-central-asia-social/
https://is.vu.lt/pls/dokt/isas.login?p_kalba=en
DC16 – Rural Governance in Central Asia
- Host: University of Zurich (Switzerland)
- Focus: Explore local democracy, governance, and rural political cultures.
- Description: This DC project will explore local governance practices and democratization from a bottom-up perspective in Kazakhstan. It will use ethnographic fieldwork to investigate how villagers engage with and resist formal political structures.
Application details and procedures can be found here:
DC17 – Governance in Mongolia
- Host: University of Zurich (Switzerland)
- Focus: Study post‑socialist local political transformations in Mongolia.
- Description: This DC project investigates local democratic practices in Mongolia, focusing on evolving governance models in rural and peri-urban areas. It will study civic participation, traditional authority, and institutional adaptation.
Application details and procedures can be found here:
Who Should Apply?
- Hold a Master’s in law, political science, , economics, development studies, sociology, human rights, anthropology, or related fields
- Hold no PhD at recruitment
- MSCA mobility rule applies: unspent >12 months in host country during previous 36 months
- Have strong research and language (English) abilities, and motivation to engage in interdisciplinary research and policy outreach
What We Offer
- 36‑month full-time EU MSCA employment contract (note that the duration of employment may vary depending on the host institution)
- Competitive monthly living, mobility, and family allowances
- Joint supervision and inter‑sectoral placements
- Comprehensive training: methods, ethics, Open Science, transferable skills
- Career guidance and enhanced employability
Application Process
Please consult the application link provided by the hosting institution for full details, specific requirements, and submission procedures related to each position.
In general, applicants should be prepared to submit a single PDF file containing the following documents (note that requirements may vary by institution):
- Cover letter
- Research proposal outlining your interest in the specific project (2–3 pages recommended)
- Curriculum Vitae
- Degree certificates and academic transcripts
- Contact details for two academic referees
- Writing sample
Applications must be submitted via the dedicated link provided by the hosting institutions by the stated deadline.