Historical Regimes of Normativity
Department Thomas Duve
The department is dedicated to research on Historical Regimes of Normativity. Regimes of normativity are consolidated arrangements of discourses, norms, practices and institutions. One might also call them arrangements of knowledge of normativity. We consider the history of knowledge of normativity as a huge process of cultural translation. These concepts and our methodology enable us to write legal histories in a global perspective.
The Department’s research projects are grouped together into five research fields. These do not follow the logics of historical periods, geographical regions or fields of law. We put analytical perspectives at centre stage. We are looking at Knowledge of Normativity from the religious sphere and its entanglement with law. We aim to understand processes of „glocalization“ (globalization and localisation) and of the production of knowledge of normativity. We are doing research on Special Legal Orders and are reflecting on how we are doing legal history and develop instruments for our legal historical practice.
Our sources are located in the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Europe. Many of our researchers are coming from the areas they are working on. In addition to the German-speaking area, the Iberian Worlds, i.e. places that were under influence of the Iberian monarchies, constitute a focus.