Volume 347 of the Studien zur europäischen Rechtsgeschichte explores the everyday workings of the Kammerverwaltung in Minden-Ravensberg, Prussia, during the 18th century. At its core is the question of how bureaucracy became a matter of course – why files were studied, colleagues endured, and hierarchies accepted. Based on close engagement with the sources, the study by Lasse Stodollick combines perspectives from systems theory and microhistory to show that the rise of administration depended less on the designs of a ruler than on the effects of rules, procedures, informal agreements, and the use of writing.

A six-member delegation from the Institute of Law at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), led by Vice Director Professor XIE Zengyi (谢增毅), visited the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory (mpilhlt) in mid-October as part of efforts to establish a long-term exchange in legal history and legal theory. The occasion marked the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by Professor Thomas Duve and Professor XIE to further strengthen cooperation between the two Institutes.

Constitutional language emerged out of the interaction of legal theory, political philosophy, and historical narratives. By analyzing the counter-concepts of constitution and arbitrariness, Volume 26 of the Global Perspectives on Legal History xplores the logic behind this discourse in 19th-century Argentina. It examines the rupture between the traditional knowledge of ius commune and modern law in the shift from arbitrium iuris to the preeminence of written law enacted by the state.