Who is permitted to do what, when and where? In the early modern period, police ordinances (Policeyordnungen) were designed to clarify these questions down to the smallest detail. Now, for the first time, comprehensive information on these early modern norms has been made accessible in a digital repertory – in Open Access and searchable format. This not only enables new historical insights but also facilitates comparative analyses of early modern normative worlds across space, time and forms of rule.

Grey files, cold rules? Think again. In the Systemfragen podcast from Deutschlandfunk, our director Marietta Auer reveals a surprising truth: bureaucracy is anything but emotionless. It shapes how we feel - sometimes soothing, often infuriating. From the quiet satisfaction of a smooth process to the rage of a confusing form, our emotional response says more about society than we think.

The new volume “Die Entstehung des Sozialen Privatrechts in Europa: ein Trialog” (The Emergence of Social Private Law in Europe: A Trialogue) (Studien zur europäischen Rechtsgeschichte, Vol. 327-2) explores a previously under-researched phase in the evolution of legal thought: the collaboration between German, Italian, and French jurists in the reshaping of private law under authoritarian regimes. At its core stands the legal “axis Berlin–Rome”, where, starting in 1936, an ideologically driven departure from the liberal model of private law began to take shape.