News and Notices

On Saturday, September 28, the mpilhlt will take part in the first Frankfurt Science Festival and present itself together with the regional science institutions networked in the Frankfurt Alliance. The overarching theme is “Transformations”: What are the major challenges of our time, where are new ideas and concepts needed, what is already being researched, what can already be shown by way of example? The mpilhlt takes up the topic of “Fundamental Rights”: Are fundamental rights a matter of course or a question of luck? Spin our wheel of fortune and travel to another time and place where different rules applied. Maybe you will witness the origin of freedom of speech, or perhaps lose the right of inviolability of the home. Discuss the history of fundamental rights with our team. more

Volume 24 of the Global Perspectives on Legal History aims to contribute to the understanding of the development of knowledge on the ‘criminal question’ as it circulated to and from the Argentinian context between the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. Around 1880, new perspectives on crime and punishment, initially also based on ideas imported from European contexts (e.g. the ‘Positivist School’ in Italy), began to be discussed in Argentina; this challenged the fundamental arguments in the realm of criminal law. Emphasising how the transnational circulation of ideas contributed to this transformation, the collected articles analyse the dynamics of adaptation, rejection and interaction between the Global North and the Global South. more

The 44. Rechtshistorikertag (the annual conference of Germanophone legal historians) is taking place in Frankfurt am Main from 16 to 20 September this year, organised by the Institut für Rechtsgeschichte of the Goethe-Universität. Dedicated to Die Sprache der Quellen, its sessions will discuss the language and mediality of legal historical sources. Another focus will be the chances offered as well as the risks posed to legal history by the current transformations in the digital world (such as by AI). In addition to the keynote lectures and panels, time has been set aside on Wednesday, 18 September for presentations of research projects and for smaller discussion sessions on 'problems and forms of legal history'.  more

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’).  more

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. more

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. more

As legal frameworks struggle to keep pace with rapid technological advances and evolving societal norms, the urgency of linking academic research to real-world societal issues has never been greater. The field of law significantly benefits from the critical insights provided by researchers. We caught up with Anselm Küsters, who has just been awarded the Ludwig Erhard Prize for Economics Writing (Ludwig-Erhard-Förderpreis für Wirtschaftspublizistik). We talked to him about the need for experts to amplify their voices, the feedback his articles have generated, and his knack for finding topics that interest both academic and social audiences. more

Matilde Cazzola's research project examines the role of the 'protection' framework in the British colonial state, focusing on how it facilitated the governance and profitability of the mobility of indentured labourers and indigenous peoples. It highlights that this mobility was regulated and secured by law to remove disorderly or criminal elements, closely linking protection with policing and crime prevention from the early nineteenth century. She also explores the use of protection as a justification for the collection of social knowledge about these groups, which informed social policies and legal measures. more

Our upcoming Max Planck Lecture in Legal History and Legal Theory (on 4 July) will focus on 'The Property/License Interface'. This lecture by Larissa Katz (University of Toronto) is based on a chapter from her forthcoming book on People (Offices) and Things. She insists on the traditional property/licence distinction and explains how these two ideas relate. She argues that the property/licence distinction captures two basic and quite different ways in which someone in an office (whether public or private) can involve others in carrying out their mandate. more

Josef Esser, as a legal theorist, doctrinalist, and comparative lawyer, significantly shaped the legal debates of the post-war period. His concepts of judiciary law and legal reasoning, as well as his textbook on the law of obligations, gained international recognition and influenced many generations of lawyers. However, his activities during the National Socialist era remain largely unexplored. Susanne Paas' research project sheds light on Esser's career from 1933 to 1949, providing exemplary insights into the career paths of legal scholars during this time. more

How has the 'bundle of rights' theory, a cornerstone of property law in the United States, weathered the storm of criticism in the late 20th century? Wenjia Zhao's research project embarks on a journey through the evolution of property rights, from the traditional 'bundle view' to the challenges posed by 'new essentialists.' Her research scrutinizes the clash between enduring legal paradigms and emerging critiques, aiming to uncover whether the bundle view stands on the brink of a conceptual crisis. more

In German-speaking countries, the ‘science’ of law is primarily understood as a normative practice whose primary task is the production of practice-relevant legal doctrine. Since the beginning of the 20th century, however, there has also been a perspective that studies law empirically, i.e. how it is actually applied in society. In his research project, Christian Boulanger explores the history of the sociology of law in Germany and places it in a broader academic context. more

In her research project, Reeju Ray delves into the complex landscape of legal history in India, a field enriched by the contributions of historians, practitioners, jurists and activists. The project aims to map the key contributors to legal history and assess the scope of the discipline, its challenges and opportunities for collaboration. It seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of the existing culture of legal history in India, identifying its various elements and participants. more

The typical sources for legal history, such as court records or laws, are often available in large quantities and with a low average degree of originality, thus representing an obvious body of material for applying Digital Humanities methods. This is discussed in Andreas Wagner’s contribution on ‘Legal History’ in Clio Guides, part of the main German Digital Humanities website for historians. His article provides an overview of the developments of the use of Digital Humanities in legal history and indicates the key collections, institutional players and resources. more

This year, the mpilhlt is be part of the floating science exhibition MS Wissenschaft. The ship has been travelling on German rivers every summer for over 20 years and is dedicated to imparting knowledge with practical exhibitions where visitors can try things out and take part in activities. Celebrating the 75th anniversary of the German Basic Law (Grundgesetz), the theme of this year's exhibition is freedom. A contribution by Marietta Auer provides a theoretical basis for the exhibition. more