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.

The writings of Francisco Rodrigues SJ (1515–1573) have influenced generations of confessors in areas under the patronage of the Iberian crowns, including India, China, Japan, and the Philippines. The collective book project ‚Evidences of Truth‘, led by Rômulo da Silva Ehalt, aims to explore the life and times of this often overlooked figure in the history of Jesuit missions in Asia under the Portuguese Padroado, shedding light on Normative Knowledge Production in Early Modern Portuguese Asia.

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.