The Förderpreis europäische Verwaltungsgeschichte (Prize for European Administrative History), founded by Erk Volkmar Heyen, is awarded to early-career academics. It both honours excellent research already completed and encourages a new research project. The 2024 prize is awarded to Marion Dotter for her dissertation on the practice of nobilitisation in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy (‘Adelspolitik in der späten Habsburgermonarchie. Kulturen des Entscheidens in der Nobilitierungspraxis während der Regierungszeit Kaiser Franz Joseph I. [1848–1916]‘). The prize will fund a project on the petitioning practices of the Catholic Church (‘Private administrative systems between nation, emotion and charity. Supplications to church organisations in the 19th century’). 

Challenging traditional historiographical paradigms and proposing new research directions, Benedetta Albani's research project examines the role of the Congregations of Cardinals within the Roman Curia. The project explores the hypothesis of a persistent Roman model of governance that emerged in the late Middle Ages and has evolved, with significant interruptions and variations, until the present day. To date, scholars have mainly focused on individual congregations, neglecting their interrelationships. The primary aim of the project is to provide the first comprehensive and integrated approach to the study of the Roman Curia and its various bodies.

Once again, we were delighted to welcome a group of young scholars from all over the world to Frankfurt for the Max Planck Summer Academy for Legal History. It has been a privilege to have had the opportunity to engage with such great people, whose dedication and insights have enriched our understanding of the complex interplay between the form and substance of law. This year's overarching research theme was 'The Mediality and Materiality of Law'. ‘Mediality’ and ‘materiality’ are important keywords in historical and cultural studies debates. Legal scholarship has also been devoting a great deal of thought to the material and medial conditions of the production and enforcement of law. Legal history has been pursuing this avenue of research for quite some time, with noteworthy examples including legal archaeology and the long-standing discussions on orality and writing, for example in medieval legal history.