News and Notices

In his entry for our blog Legal History Insights, Omer Aloni (Tel Aviv University) delves into the interplay between traditional and modern legal systems in Israel through his analysis titled "Present Absentee: The Sulha as a Mechanism of Legal Pluralism in Israeli Law.“ Aloni examines a landmark case from the 1950s where the traditional Sulha reconciliation process—a customary method of conflict resolution in Arab communities—played a crucial role in a Supreme Court decision. This case illustrates how Sulha was used to mediate a manslaughter conviction, leading to a more lenient sentence by emphasizing the restoration of peace between the families involved. more

The position of Managing Director at the Institute rotates among the three Directors every three years. As of 2025, Stefan Vogenauer has assumed this role, succeeding Marietta Auer at the start of the year. The Managing Director oversees the Institute’s day-to-day operations, particularly its administrative functions. In his introductory message, Vogenauer extends his gratitude to Marietta Auer for her exemplary leadership and shares his plans to further advance the Institute’s mission through strategic initiatives and continued dedication to outstanding research. more

In her PhD Project Manuela Camargo de Assis investigates the often-overlooked role of architects in shaping international law. Traditionally, legal scholarship has focused on written texts and metaphorical references to architecture, but Camargo de Assis argues that architecture’s physical and visual dimensions can directly influence legal norms, authority, and power. Her work centers on a series of 20th- and 21st-century case studies of buildings designed to house international organizations. Drawing on legal history, architecture, and visual studies, this research highlights the interplay between the discursive and material facets of international law. more

The Max Planck Summer Academy for Legal History 2025 is now accepting applications. This annual program offers a unique opportunity for early-stage researchers, primarily PhD candidates, to deepen their understanding of legal history through traditional and modern approaches. This year’s theme, ‘The Struggle for Law‘, invites participants to explore the conflictual and transformative dimensions of law, inspired by the reflections of 19th-century legal scholar Rudolf von Jhering. Topics may include societal conflicts shaping lawmaking, individual struggles for rights, and legal systems’ adaptation to change. more

On 15. January 2025, as part of the Max Planck Lecture in Legal History and Legal Theory series, Yanna Yannakakis (Emory University) presents the lecture, “Future-making and Custom in Indigenous Land Claims in Colonial Mexico.” This talk delves into the ways Indigenous communities in colonial Mexico engaged with Spanish legal systems to secure their land rights, challenging conventional perceptions that place Indigenous peoples as perpetually tied to the past. Focusing on Indigenous litigation strategies, Yannakakis examines how Native authorities employed Spanish-style partnership contracts to assert communal land claims rooted in ancestral possession. This practice reflects an intentional form of “future-making,” wherein Indigenous communities aimed to avoid costly cycles of litigation and potential conflict with neighboring groups. more

In her latest post for our Legal History Insights blog, Raquel R. Sirotti recounts a research trip she and two colleagues took to Maputo, where they explored the depths of colonial archives and sought out voices rarely captured in official records. Faced with the limitations of written sources, they turned to oral histories and woven these stories into Tramas Coloniais, a documentary podcast that reimagines how African stories can be told. 'To write a history of colonialism and its normativities in Africa that truly seeks to understand and highlight the agency of Africans and their forms of knowledge production, it is crucial to go beyond written sources,' she reflects.  more

Nowadays, the term ‘privileges’, part and parcel of political and societal discourse in countries worldwide, carries a negative connotation as it contradicts the concept of justice and equality in state and society. The original, legal meaning of this ubiquitous term, which dates back to Roman canon law, has largely become obscured. In Volume 343 of the Studien zur europäischen Rechtsgeschichte Heinz Mohnhaupt traces the history and European dimensions of the ‘privilegia’ and their relevance for the evolution of law, state and society in a longue durée perspective. He complements his account with a comprehensive overview of sources by territory and a bibliography organised according to subject matter, ranging from the Middle Ages to the present day. more

In his research project, ,A Critical Reappraisal of Legal Positivism’, Luke Kelland aims to reassess foundational assumptions in legal positivist theory. Integrating legal theory and the history of jurisprudence, this project examines the guiding role of law in shaping human behavior and questions the universal aspirations of legal positivist theories. By challenging core concepts such as the necessity of conceptual analysis for defining legal validity, the research creates a platform to critique the methodological underpinnings of legal positivism. This project seeks to identify alternative frameworks and approaches that may offer more comprehensive insights, addressing the current gap in positivist theory's capacity to encompass diverse jurisprudential perspectives. more

Aden Knaap, a recent graduate of Harvard University, has been awarded the Max Planck-ASLH Dissertation Prize for his dissertation entitled ,Judging the World: International Courts and the Origins of Global Governance, 1899-1971‘. The prize recognises his meticulously researched work, which traces the history and development of international courts from the first efforts in 1899 to the establishment of today's international legal institutions after the Second World War. Knaap's work offers a fresh perspective by highlighting the pivotal role of international court initiatives in the early twentieth century, a period often overlooked in narratives of global governance. more

Valerian Klein's research project, The Legal Construction of Credit Money, examines the role of law in the formation and regulation of credit money. Integrating multidisciplinary legal theory and private law theory, this project analyzes how credit money—primarily created by commercial banks in the Euro area through loan issuance—constitutes the majority of the money supply. By viewing money as a socially constructed practice framed by law, the project sheds light on the legal mechanisms that shape money creation and their potential impact on financial stability and social inequality. This research addresses a key gap by exploring the legal structure behind credit money, focusing on how regulatory changes may influence distribution and economic justice. more

As part of the Frankfurter Rechtshistorische Abendgespräche series, Saskia Lettmaier’s lecture, ,Marriage and Madness: The Origins of the Marriage of Lunatics Act (1742),, explores the historical context and legal significance of the 1742 Act—a pivotal yet understudied British statute. Integrating legal and social history, the project examines why this law, which voided marriages involving individuals deemed "lunatics," was enacted as a general statute, predating the well-known Hardwicke Marriage Act. Her research addresses legislative intervention in marriage, societal attitudes toward mental incapacity in 18th-century England, and the socio-political forces that influenced the Act’s passage. This interdisciplinary approach fills a gap in legal history, analyzing social and political motivations behind early marriage laws affecting those with mental incapacity. more

On the 7^th and 8^th of October 2024, the Max Planck European Law Group held its Third Annual Conference funded by Max Planck Law on the theme of ‘Equality in an Unequal Europe? Assessing Anti-Discrimination Law in Context’ at the Harnack Haus in Berlin. The presentations focused on key aspects of European anti-discrimination law in both the EU and European Convention on Human Rights frameworks, offering diverse legal perspectives on contemporary challenges. Topics included the role of equality in the effectiveness of the horizontal application of EU law, structural disadvantages in international law and in national and European legal frameworks.  more

The recent issue of our Institute’s journal Rechtsgeschichte – Legal History (Rg) presents high-level research contributions and candid reviews of books on topics that are relevant for the field of legal history, in Germany and worldwide. Three essays are dedicated to the legal history of slavery in the early modern and modern periods: Carlo Bersani traces the European legal discourse on servi and personae (16th–18th century). Matilde Cazzola looks at the efforts to abolish slavery in British Caribbean, and Tamar Herzog analyses some aspects of the historiography of the legal history of slavery, a field so far dominated by Atlantic history. The issue is now available in print from the Vittorio Klostermann publishing house, and online in Open Access via the journal's website. more

Jasper Kunstreich‘s research project ,The Economics of Legal History‘, aims to integrate economic theory and history with legal history, offering a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the evolution of legal frameworks. His project is grounded in the idea that Europe's transformation into modern capitalism was driven by institutional and legal changes, aligning with the principles of New Institutional Economics. The research highlights the significant role of law in public choice theories and the emerging field of law and political economy, which often draw on historical legal precedents. However, legal history has yet to fully engage in this interdisciplinary dialogue. more

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