This year's Summer Academy brought together twenty participants with a broad range of personal and academic backgrounds for two weeks of intensive exchange. As part of an overarching programme of introductory lectures on select research fields in legal history under the theme ‘Actors, groups and identities in legal history’, the early doctoral candidates had the opportunity to present their work to an audience of research colleagues. Lively discussions and fruitful questions emerged over the course of the two weeks between the participants who were all at a similar point in their academic careers.

„Recht als Wissenschaft“ ist das Thema einer Tagung am mpilhlt, die dem gleichnamigen, zweibändigen Werk von Jan Schröder gewidmet ist. Vor der Veranstaltung sprachen wir mit dem Autor der Geschichte der juristischen Methodenlehre vom ausgehenden Mittelalter bis zum Ende des 20. Jahrhunderts über den Begriff von „Wissenschaft“, die kopernikanische Wende im Recht und den Zustand des „Rechts als Wissenschaft“ im deutschsprachigen Raum.

The intersection of theory, practice, and history of law has always been a captivating subject. Few individuals embody this multifaceted approach as effectively as Prof Shivprasad Swaminathan. He's currently on a Humboldt Fellowship at our Institute, where he's studying the theory and method in the common law. In our interview he explores the state of private law in India, the need for a new approach to common law theory, and the potential of historical perspectives in modern jurisprudence.