The struggle for law

Each year, a new cohort of young scholars joins our Summer Academy, a two-week program of seminars, research, and debate at the intersection of legal history and theory. Participants examine how law has been attacked, defended, and transformed - from abolitionist petitions to postcolonial constitutions, from courtrooms to the streets.

The theme of this year’s Academy draws on a provocation by Rudolf von Jhering, who wrote in 1872 that “the life of the law is a struggle.” For him, law emerged not from consensus, but from conflict - between states, classes, and individuals. It’s an idea that still resonates in battles over reparations, decolonization, and civil rights.

But is struggle the only force that shapes law? Jhering also called law a “continuous work,” a quieter process of negotiation, repair, and persistence. This year’s Academy invites participants to explore both: the confrontations that bring legal systems to the breaking point, and the everyday labor that holds them together.

Alongside lectures on key methods and debates in legal history, participants will present their own projects, engage in small-group workshops, and spend time in one of the world’s leading legal history libraries. The goal is not just to revisit legal struggles of the past, but to rethink what it means to do legal history today.

Want to join us next year?

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