Forum
Of great importance to the Institute is the integration of the research on different eras and regions carried out in the departments and research groups. Different formats as well as interdepartmental research projects and co-operations enable an intensive exchange.
Within the context of the monthly plenary sessions, all of the researchers have the opportunity to discuss their research projects, common issues and findings. The monthly colloquium is a venue primarily for guests and external reseachers to present their work to the academic staff. Twice per semester, the Institute hosts, together with colleagues from the Institute for Legal History at the Goethe University, the Frankfurt Legal History Evening Lecture. A further highlight each year is the Summer Academy for Legal History, in which researchers from the departments and research groups teach roughly 20 early-stage researchers from around the world. The activities of the research area Digital Humanities also help to utilise the enormous potential of the Institute's research on the legal histories of different times and eras.
Another important shared interest is the reflection on legal historical methods and the history of the field. The Institute takes part in the research project History of the Max Planck Society post 1945 and see it as its task to shape the international discussion on the past and future of legal history. This is accomplished not least through relevant publications, for example, in the Institute's journal Rechtsgeschichte – Legal History, edited by the directors, and the Institute's broad series of publications. The Institute's Colloquium 2021 is dedicated to the methodological and practical challenges of working with and in archives.
These and other activities all flow into the jointly pursued research field Legal Historiography.
