Mpi for Legal History and Legal Theory

How Clerics Established the New Legal System in Spanish America with Simple Rule Sets The Max Planck Institute for European Legal History project examines the history of transnational criminal law with a focus on cross-border political crime, extradition, asylum and police cooperation. A research question is how current problems in transnational criminal law can be explained in terms of legal history. One of the particular challenges of the Institute is to create a historical and empirical basis for a critical examination of the legal system in the era of globalization. To this end, the Institute is increasingly focusing on the interrelations between European and non-European legal systems. The Studies in the Contract Laws of Asia research project provides the first comprehensive overview of contract law in 14 jurisdictions ranging from India in the West to Japan in the East. Together, they account for nearly half of the world`s population and much of its economic power. The project, coordinated by the University of Oxford and the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Theory, involves around 150 lawyers from across Asia, making it one of the most comprehensive contemporary projects in comparative law. Under the direction of Helmut Coing, the Institute`s research focused on the history of private law in Europe and its link with economic history. Dieter Simon, Walter Wilhelm, Michael Stolleis and Marie Theres Fögen have successively broadened the Institute`s research spectrum to include legal theory and sociology, the history of public law, international law, criminal law, modern Eastern European law and 20th century dictatorship Europe. The institute`s interdisciplinary research, specialized library with more than 470,000 press articles, publications and numerous institutional and international collaborations provide a unique research environment for legal historians and other researchers from around the world. Over the past sixty years, the Institute has become one of the central research centers of the global scientific community engaged in the study of our past and present national and transnational legal systems. The Spanish conquistadors found it surprisingly easy to conquer the New World.

However, it took more than violence and cruelty to dominate the territory. A research team led by Thomas Duve at the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History investigates the media with which the Spanish crown has consolidated its power. An international research group led by Carolin Behrmann at the Max Planck Institute for Art History in Florence is studying the significance of images for the consolidation and legitimization of law, with a focus on European history in the early modern period. Researchers can become heroes, and not just if their expertise is in high demand and they gain notoriety through media attention. To this day, lawyer Eugen Ehrlich is considered a model and figurehead in many ways: while some describe him as the “founder of the sociology of law”, others consider him “the ancestor of legal pluralism”. For Ralf Seinecke, however, these images of science heroes must be treated with caution. While they are certainly important and revolutionary figures, these images or images also challenge the categories of true and false. Europeans have a lot of experience in crisis management. If you look at the history of the Community of European States, one thing becomes clear: for decades there have been regular more or less fierce controversies. However, strategies to overcome them have always been found, as Stefan Vogenauer`s team at the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History in Frankfurt am Main discovered during their research.

Researchers also gained new knowledge about the current state of the European Union. The founding director of the institute was Helmut Coing (1964-1980). Dieter Simon (1980-2003), Walter Wilhelm (1970-1994), Michael Stolleis (1991-2006) and Marie Theres Fögen (2001-2008) later became directors of the institute. After his retirement in 2006, Michael Stolleis became Executive Director of the Institute until 2009. In 2010, Thomas Duve, the new director and scientific member, took over the management of the institute. Stefan Vogenauer joined the Executive Board in 2014. Marietta Auer has been Director of the Institute since 1 September 2020 and has since headed a third Department of Legal Theory. At the turn of the year 2020/2021, the institute was renamed and has since been called the Max Planck Institute for History and Theory of Law. Since 2002, the institute`s journal Rechtsgeschichte has been published annually by Klostermann Verlag[3] and has been available simultaneously in open access since 2012. Its predecessors were IUS COMMUNE, Zeitschrift für europäische Rechtsgeschichte (1967-2001) and the Rechtshistorische Journal (1982-2001). The institute`s research findings are also published as working papers, pre-print editions or in post-print format in the Legal History Research Paper Series, published online as SSRN since 2012. In addition to the journals, a number of book series reflect the work of the Institute, for example: Global Perspectives on Legal History, Studien zur europäischen Rechtsgeschichte, Studien zu Policey und Policeywissenschaft oder methodica – Einführung in die rechtshistorische Forschung.

[4] Since its foundation in 1964, the Institute with its three departments, the specialized library with more than 470,000 print media units and many international visitors has become a global hub for past and present national and transnational legal systems. [1] The existential challenges facing the world today – climate change, migration, pandemics – can only be met through global cooperation. But can we agree on global rules? – The study of history reveals the foundations of an international legal language on which we can rely. Centuries of encounters between peoples around the world, often tragic and marked by violence and asymmetries, have led to processes of cultural translation and localization of normative knowledge. The objective of the project “Glocalization of Normativities” is to better understand these mechanisms. With the appointment of the new Director Marietta Auer, the Institute has dedicated a third department to legal theory, thus broadening its field of research. Since 2021, this expansion is also reflected in the name, which now takes a global view of legal history and theory, thus avoiding a Eurocentric approach. Cooperation in the Rhine-Main region, in particular with the Goethe University Frankfurt, plays an important role in this respect.

Through the Pole of Excellence “The Formation of Normative Orders” or the Collaborative Research Center “Discourses of Weakness and Resource Regimes”, the Institute and the University jointly contribute to the creation of a sustainable research place on normativity. Together they also created “The Salamanca School” as a long-term research project at the Mainz University of Sciences and Letters, thus succeeding in combining research perspectives in the fields of legal history and philosophy. [2] The history of the European Union has been marked by a fundamental process of legal integration.