Max Planck Summer Academy for Legal History 2018: The World and the Village

[We have the following announcement.]

The Max-Planck Summer Academy for Legal History provides a selected group of highly motivated early-stage graduates, usually PhD candidates, an in-depth introduction to methods and principles of research in legal history.  The academy consists of two parts. The first part provides an introduction to the study of sources, methodological principles, as well as theoretical models and controversial research debates on basic research fields of legal history. In the second part the participants discuss the research theme and develop their own approach to the theme.  The course will take place at the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

This year’s theme [is] The World and the Village. The Global and the Local in Legal History

As an academic discipline, legal history emerged both in Europe and several other world regions in the 19th and early 20th centuries: the age of the nation-state. Research in legal history that focuses on local and regional contexts—Europe, for example—is a largely product of this heritage.  Global history, historiographic reflection and new methods in the humanities have helped to bring the complexity of local, national, regional and global relationships into the purview of legal history. Moreover, the increasing importance of supranational and transnational law make it all the more urgent from the perspective of legal studies to consider the relation between world and village.
Applicants to the 2018 Summer Academy are encouraged to present research projects that give special consideration to the connection between local and global legal discourses. 

Eligibility Requirements: (1)  Early-stage graduates (usually PhD candidates); and (2) Working knowledge of English is required; German is not a prerequisite

Application: Required documents for the application are a CV, a project summary (approx. 10 pages) and a letter of motivation.

Fees: There is no participation fee. Accommodations will be provided by the organizers. Participants, however, will be responsible for covering their travel expenses.  There will be a limited number of travel scholarships available.

Deadline: Applications are to be sent in by January 31, 2018
Contact Info:  Max Planck Institute for European Legal History, Dr. Stefanie Rüther, summeracademy@rg.mpg.de