News and Notices

Each year, a new cohort of young scholars joins our Summer Academy, a two-week program of seminars, research, and debate at the intersection of legal history and theory. Participants examine how law has been attacked, defended, and transformed - from abolitionist petitions to postcolonial constitutions, from courtrooms to the streets. The theme of this year’s Academy draws on a provocation by Rudolf von Jhering, who wrote in 1872 that “the life of the law is a struggle.” For him, law emerged not from consensus, but from conflict - between states, classes, and individuals. It’s an idea that still resonates in battles over reparations, decolonization, and civil rights. more

Sexual abuse by clergy is not a uniquely modern scandal. Long before today's headlines, the Christian Church was already wrestling with how to respond when those in holy office became the perpetrators. In “Sexueller Kindesmissbrauch und Sodomie im mittelalterlichen Kirchenrecht”, Kevin Kulp sheds light on how medieval Church law addressed such transgressions, offering a detailed legal-historical study that stretches from late antiquity to the Reformation. This is the fourth volume under the theme Recht im ersten Jahrtausend, published as part of the series Studien zur europäischen Rechtsgeschichte (Volume 345). more

What happens when someone acts without permission on behalf of another – and third parties are affected? Midas Kempcke, doctoral researcher at the mpilhlt, explores this intricate legal scenario in his PhD project on interventions with external effects in the law of negotiorum gestio. At the heart of his research lies a classic yet unresolved problem in private law: when an unauthorized intervenor enters the interest sphere of a principal and concludes contracts with third parties, who is legally bound? more

The new volume “Die Entstehung des Sozialen Privatrechts in Europa: ein Trialog” (The Emergence of Social Private Law in Europe: A Trialogue) (Studien zur europäischen Rechtsgeschichte, Vol. 327-2) explores a previously under-researched phase in the evolution of legal thought: the collaboration between German, Italian, and French jurists in the reshaping of private law under authoritarian regimes. At its core stands the legal “axis Berlin–Rome”, where, starting in 1936, an ideologically driven departure from the liberal model of private law began to take shape. more

Who is permitted to do what, when and where? In the early modern period, police ordinances (Policeyordnungen) were designed to clarify these questions down to the smallest detail. Now, for the first time, comprehensive information on these early modern norms has been made accessible in a digital repertory – in Open Access and searchable format. This not only enables new historical insights but also facilitates comparative analyses of early modern normative worlds across space, time and forms of rule. more

Earthquakes, floods, industrial accidents – environmental disasters are not just natural events. They can put pressure on political systems and reshape political agendas. But under what conditions do they trigger real political change? And why do some disasters lead to swift action, while others leave barely a trace?
Jan-Henrik Meyer explores these dynamics from a historical perspective in the Deutschlandfunk Nova podcast Eine Stunde History. His research shows that the political impact of environmental disasters depends largely on their societal and political context. more

Grey files, cold rules? Think again. In the Systemfragen podcast from Deutschlandfunk, our director Marietta Auer reveals a surprising truth: bureaucracy is anything but emotionless. It shapes how we feel - sometimes soothing, often infuriating. From the quiet satisfaction of a smooth process to the rage of a confusing form, our emotional response says more about society than we think. more

When the article is published and the project ends, what remains? The data. In her entry for our blog ‚Legal History Insights‘, Polina Solonets makes the case that research data is not a technical afterthought - it’s the foundation of scholarly work. With the institute’s new Research Data Policy now in place, this new blog series explores why managing data well isn’t just about compliance, but about clarity, credibility, and care. From backups to citations, from loss prevention to open access - this is your practical guide to making research data part of your research identity. more

In the colonial courtrooms of the Amazon, Indigenous voices did more than defend. They redefined the meaning of freedom. André Luís Bezerra Ferreira uncovers how Native communities used memory, kinship, and oral tradition as powerful legal tools to challenge colonial rule. Drawing from overlooked archives like the Livro de Assentos of the Junta das Missões, his work shows that Indigenous peoples were not passive subjects but active negotiators of law and status. Courts became spaces of struggle where terms like ‚captive‘, ‚slave‘, and ‚free‘ were constantly reinterpreted through Indigenous knowledge systems. Oral histories, rituals, and relational ties anchored claims to liberty and protection in a legal world built to exclude them. more

What happens when you're expected to follow rules that contradict each other? That question is at the center of a lecture by historian Hillard von Thiessen (University of Rostock), taking place on April 23 as part of the series Frankfurter Rechtshistorische Abendgespräche. His talk, titled ‚The Age of Ambiguity. Concurrence and Competition of Norms in Early Modern Europe‘, begins at 18:15 in Room Z01 at our institute. At the heart of Thiessen’s talk is the concept of Normenkonkurrenz - the overlapping and often clashing expectations from different sources of authority: religious teachings, legal rules, and social codes. In early modern Europe, these weren’t neatly aligned. Quite the opposite - they pulled people in different directions. According to Thiessen, this wasn’t just confusing. It shaped an entire way of life.  more

This new volume in the Studien zur europäischen Rechtsgeschichte explores how core legal concepts - such as judgement, jurisdiction, law, and justice - took shape in the dialogue between legal scholarship and moral theology. Focusing on the legal system of Hispano-America (derecho indiano), Orazio Condorelli traces key developments in the relationship between secular and ecclesiastical power, with a particular emphasis on the institutions that structured this relationship in the Spanish overseas territories from the 16th to the 18th century. more

Submissions are now open for a workshop on the Mixed Courts of Egypt, to be held on 23–24 February 2026 at the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory. Organized by Dr Michel Erpelding and Aya Bejermi, the event invites reflection on an institution that stood at the crossroads of empire, international law, and everyday justice. Established through treaties between Egypt and 14 Western powers, the Mixed Courts operated for over seven decades with foreign judges and French-inspired legal codes. Their legacy stretches from Cairo to Strasbourg, and still prompts fresh questions today. more

What if the Council of Trent wasn’t rigid, but adaptable? In Volume 23 of Global Perspectives on Legal History, Anna Clara Lehmann Martins uncovers how clerics, jurists, and bureaucrats in 19th-century Brazil used the Tridentinum not as dogma, but as a flexible tool. Drawing on rich archival sources from Brazil’s Council of State and the Vatican’s Congregation of the Council, she reveals a “fabric of the ordinary” where norms were shaped by multilevel governance and multinormativity. The work emerged from a cotutelle PhD between UFMG and the University of Münster, within the Max Planck Research Group led by Benedetta Albani. more

Submissions are open for the prestigious Max Planck-ASLH Dissertation Prize for European Legal History in a Global Perspective. Awarded by the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory (mpilhlt) in collaboration with the American Society for Legal History (ASLH), the prize honours outstanding dissertations that examine Europe’s legal past in its broader global context. This year’s prize will be awarded to a PhD or JSD recipient whose dissertation was completed in 2024 and advances the study of European legal history in a global framework. The recipient will spend three months at the mpilhlt in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, with full financial support, including a 2500 € monthly stipend, travel funding of up to 1500 €, and housing in an Institute apartment. more

The legal history of the British Empire is still in its early stages—but the newly released The British Empire in Comparative Legal Perspective helps bridge some of the gaps. Volume 25 of the Global Perspectives on Legal History explores legal transfer and legal geography across Australia, Canada, the United States, the Caribbean, East Asia, and East and South Africa. Arguing for a comparative approach, the book highlights how legislative and interpretative models were consciously adopted and adapted across imperial jurisdictions. The decolonization process further revealed both parallels and divergences in legal development. more