News and Notices

A new volume in our Policey series draws on neglected files of the Oberste Justizstelle to examine criminal justice under the Habsburg monarchy in the Vormärz period, tracing criminality and deviance in Tyrol and Vorarlberg alongside the stereotypical perceptions Viennese judges held of the "Italian part of Tyrol". Combining legal history with criminality studies and discourse analysis, it opens a window onto Austrian social history and everyday life in the early 19th century. more

Jan Schröder's Recht als Wissenschaft has been a standard reference on the history of legal methodology since its first publication. A new commentary volume, edited by Marietta Auer, Ralf Seinecke and Stefan Vogenauer, now examines the central arguments of this work critically: Which periodisations does it establish, which narratives does it choose, and which alternatives does it set aside? more

In volume 351 of Studies in European Legal History , Reinhard Zimmermann offers a vivid portrait of the life, work and influence of Ernst Heymann (1870–1946): from the Prussian-trained Germanist and legal historian who in 1914 succeeded Heinrich Brunner to the most prestigious Legal History chair in the Germanist tradition at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-University in Berlin, to the director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, which he headed from 1937 until his death in 1946 – having taken over from founding director Ernst Rabel, whom the National Socialists had forced to resign. more

Google, Amazon, Microsoft: three corporations that today control more infrastructure than most states can regulate. Anselm Küsters calls this behavioural power – and in his new book Small is beautiful 2.0, he has developed a counter-programme: open source, decentralised platforms, a theory of competition that takes democracy seriously as a protected good. Küsters completed his doctorate at our institute, conducts research at Humboldt University in Berlin and heads the Digitalisation Department at the Centre for European Policy (cep) more

In volume 350 of the Studies in European Legal History, Tim Knoche examines the legal term albacea of the Spanish Código Civil, as the result of a multi-stage legal reception, from the Islamic waṣī through the Mozarabic and Castilian documentary practice of Toledo to its internal Castilian spread, exemplified by late medieval document practice in Christian-dominated Seville. more

Germany likes to see itself as progressive on family policy. But when it comes to inheritance, that progress ends. In a recent legal column in Merkur, our director Marietta Auer argues that German inheritance law still reflects a 1950s model of the bourgeois nuclear family. Her key points: the law treats wealth as “family property” rather than individual ownership, penalizes those who leave assets to friends or siblings with inheritance taxes of up to 50 percent, and contradicts political rhetoric that celebrates diverse family forms. In practice, true freedom of testation ends once you move beyond the traditional core family. more

Volume 332 of the Studien zur europäischen Rechtsgeschichte explores the growing differentiation of German legal science around 1900. It traces the emergence of new subdisciplines, shifting self-understandings within established fields, and lively debates in legal philosophy, theory, and sociology, highlighting the conditions under which a plural and differentiated jurisprudence took shape. more

Germany’s colonial past is again at the center of public debate. Volume 27 of the Global Perspectives on Legal History offers a focused contribution: a study of how the German administration in Samoa (1900–1914) used family law as a tool of colonial governance. Examining marriage, divorce, citizenship, legitimacy, and maintenance, Julia Hütten shows how rules on the most intimate matters became instruments of colonial power and a mirror for ideas of ‘Germanness’. more

This year's Max Planck-ASLH Dissertation Prize for European Legal History in Global Perspective recognizes two remarkable works. Vladislav Lilić and Daniel R. Quiroga Villamarín offer research that enriches the study of state formation, international order, and the built environments that shaped global governance. more

At our Institute, we explore law, its history and theory from a global perspective and work to deepen understanding of its role in society. Our work on China, a country frequently seen through the narrow lens of geopolitics, shows how meaningful understanding emerges from dialogue, careful study and exchange. This commitment was reinforced in October, when our director Professor Thomas Duve and Professor Xie Zengyi of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences signed a Memorandum of Understanding.  more

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 explores 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. more

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. more

Ten years ago, on 1 October 2015, Stefan Vogenauer took up his position as Director at the Institute and established the Department of European and Comparative Legal History. The projects focusing on the Legal History of the European Union represent an innovative take on the Institute's research tradition. Moreover, the history of Legal Transfer in the Common Law World, a second research field within his Department, has opened up another world to the Institute. As the former Chair of Max Planck Law, he played a key role in establishing this network of legal institutes within the Max Planck Society. More recently, he has taken on further responsibilities as Chair of the Human Sciences Section. We thank him for his dedication and look forward to the next decade. more

Every legal history begins with a source, and every source speaks its own language. A Roman text in Coptic, a factory ‘house law’ or a digital corpus of crime stories can each open a different window onto law’s past. The contributions in this year’s edition of our journal Rechtsgeschichte – Legal History remind us that sources are never neutral. They shape what we recognize as law, and their meaning emerges through translation, practice and interpretation. Legal history tells of authority and justice, of expectations and conflicts and of communities striving to shape life under rules.  more

Volume 334 of the Studien zur europäischen Rechtsgeschichte presents the results of three trilateral research conferences that took place between 2018 and 2020 at the Villa Vigoni. It sheds light on the question of how the Church used the tools of the law to react to conflicts triggered by various crises between 500 and approx. 1500 CE. The research focused on differences, contested matters, disputes and ambivalent conflicts within the Church at the intersection of internal and external order, as well as on external disputes. more