Regime theory

Working group

The term ‘regime’ is used to refer to consolidated arrangements of discourses, norms, practices and institutions. As an analytical category, ‘regime’ opens up interdisciplinary interfaces for legal history, which considers regimes primarily from the perspective of the construction, mediation and enforcement of norms (regimes of normativity). However, the legal-historical use of the concept requires careful theoretical reflection. The working group ‘Regime theory’ explores the possibilities and limits of regime-theoretical approaches.

In the first phase, the working group focused on the interdisciplinary foundations of regime theory for legal historiography. This phase concluded with the publication of the now online symposium Historical Regimes of Normativity.  In the second phase, the preliminary body of theory will be critically scrutinised and developed with regard to its practical applicability in the individual Research Fields. Currently, the working group focuses on the question of the possibility of a theoretical description of change in regimes of normativity.

The findings of the working group as well as the contributions of the Research Field sessions are published in the symposium Historical Regimes of Normativity on the blog Legal History Insights.