Max Planck Institute for European History of Law

The Max Planck Institute for European Legal History (German: Max-Planck-Institut für europäische Rechtsgeschichte), situated in Frankfurt/Main, is one of 83 institutes and research facilities of the Max Planck Society (MPG). Since its foundation in 1964 researchers at the institute have been investigating the history of law in Europe and beyond.

The founding director of the institute was Helmut Coing (1964–1979). Dieter Simon (1980-2001), Walter Wilhelm (1980-1987), Michael Stolleis (1991-2006) and Marie Theres Fögen (2001-2008) later became directors of the institute. After having retired in 2006 again Michael Stolleis became Managing Director of the MPIeR until 2009. In 2010 Thomas Duve, the new director and Scientific Member, took over the institute's management. In 2014, Stefan Vogenauer joined the Directorate and has been acting as Managing Director since 2016. Currently, Thomas Duve, Dieter Simon, Michael Stolleis and Stefan Vogenauer are Scientific Members of the institute. Knut Wolfgang Knörr is an External Scientific Member at the MPIeR.

Under Helmut Coing the research focus of the MPIeR was placed on the history of private law in Europe and its correlation to economic history. Dieter Simon, Walter Wilhelm, Michael Stolleis and Marie Theres Fögen gradually broadened the research scope of the institute to the theory and sociology of law, the history of public law, international law, criminal law, the law of modern Eastern Europe and the Europe of Dictatorship in the 20th century. Today, Thomas Duve and Stefan Vogenauer focus on the transnational approach to European Legal History by pursuing research in the fields of Global History and Comparative Law. The current research profile comprises four research areas which are Multinormativity, Translation, Legal Spaces and Conflict Regulation. In addition, 14 special research fields add to the institute's profile. These are Legal Historiography, Sources, History of Private Law, History of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, Legal History of the Church, Regulating Regimes, History of Legal Methods and Practices, Legal History of the European Union, Legal Transfer in the Common Law World, Legal History of Ibero-America, Law as a Civilising Factor in the First Millennium, the Legal History of the School of Salamanca, Governance of the Universal Church after the Council of Trent as well as Law and Diversity. Areas of Expertise still present at the MPIeR are "Age and Law", "Kriminalbilder und Sicherheitsdiskurse im vormodernen Europa", "Communication and Representation of Law in (Pictorial) Media", "Confessionalism and the History of Church Law in the 19th and 20th Centuries", "The Europe of Dictatorships", "Gute Policey: Administrative Law and the science of public affairs", "History of International Law", "History of Private Law in the Modern Era", "Law in the Industrial Revolution", "Legal Cultures in Modern Eastern Europe", LOEWE Research Focus “Extrajudicial and Judicial Conflict Resolution”, LOEWE Junior Research Group “Canon Law, Moral Theology and Conflict Resolution in the Early Modern Period”, "Recht macht alt", "Rechtliche Aspekte konfessioneller Migration im neuzeitlichen Europa", "Rechtsgeschichte der Schule von Salamanca", "Scientific Communication in the 19th Century", "Scientific History of Public Law", "Venues Where Juridical and Economic Rationalities of Regulation Interact" and "Zur Ikonographie der Gesetzgebung".

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