Max Planck Law

Upcoming Events

Annual Conference

30 October – 1 November 2023, Berlin | Max Planck Law Annual Conference

Crisis is intimately associated with critique. It is a ‘turning point’, a critical condition. In legal discourse, ‘crisis’ is often linked to change – either to argue in favour of desirable legal reform or to rally to the defence of cherished institutions threatened by unwanted change. Occasionally, and usually to the alarm of legal scholars, crisis is interpreted as a state of exception requiring the suspension of specific legal institutions or even of the rule of law as such (Ruiz Fabri 2022). Ralf Michaels (2020) has argued that law is on the one hand challenged by crisis to reflect on fundamentals and adapt to a fluid and novel situation, while on the other hand, law is essential to dealing with crisis in a way that preserves democratic society.

This raises many questions: How do crises reveal the shortcomings of existing legal norms and institutions? How have legal structures contributed to the crises of democracy, the climate crisis, etc? What is at stake when such crises threaten the law or legal order itself? Are there legal reforms that can address crises? What is the relation between law, crisis, and critique? And so on.

As a renowned scholar in crisis narratives, Prof. Ruiz Fabri will give the closing keynote of the conference.

If you would like to participate in this event, MPL invites proposals for contributions on the conference theme from all researchers at the ten Max Planck Law Institutes, from PhD students to Directors. Contributions can take one of the following forms:

  • an individual presentation of 15-20 minutes, to feature in the Research Showcases section of the conference;
  • a panel, seminar, or workshop organized by a Department or Institute to feature in the Departmental Showcases section of the conference;
  • an individual or co-authored presentation outlining the perspective of a Max Planck Law Initiative on the conference theme, to feature in the Initiatives section of the conference.

Please send proposals, including an abstract of no more than 500 words, to Dr Niels Petersson by Friday 30 June 2023. More info can be found here.

Curriculum

6-7 June, MPI Frankfurt | ‘An Oral History of the European Court of Justice’ by Prof. Stefaan Vogenauer and Dr Jan-Henrik Meyer

The workshop will collect the first results of the pilot project ‘An Oral History of the European Court of Justice’. Interviewers will present the most important findings from their conversations with former members of the Court: Judges, Advocates-General, and key officials.

Register here by 17:00 on 31 May.

26-27 June, MPI Freiburg | ‘Democracy and Counter-Extremism’ by Prof. Ralf Poscher

This two-day course explores how counter-extremism measures reveal limitations in conventional democratic models. It examines individual, state, supranational, and international levels, and aims to stimulate discussion on substantive and procedural questions. The course begins with theoretical foundations, drawing important distinctions between positive, negative, and republican freedom and their significance for democratic theorizing. Differing conceptions of liberty and notions of deliberative and participatory democracy help to clarify how counter-extremism measures can be understood as 'democratic'. Evaluating the legitimacy and effectiveness of such measures requires precision about core political and legal concepts.

Please register here by 17:00 on 2 June.

4-8 July, MPI Hamburg | ‘Decolonial Comparative Law Summer School’ hy Prof. Ralf Michaels and Prof. Lena Salaymeh

The Decolonial Comparative Law (DeCoLa) summer school brings together comparative law and decoloniality with a rigorous attention to methods. Summer school participants will learn about:

  • the impact of epistemologies (and ideologies) on the choice and implementation of legal methods
  • the distinction between postcolonial, critical legal, Indigenous, and decolonial theories;
  • decolonial methods that can be applied in a variety of settings, both legal and non-legal.

Registration is closed.

11-12 July, Harnack Haus - Berlin | ‘Max Planck Climate Conference for a Sustainable Anthropocene’ by Dr Johan Horst, Dr Jannika Jahn and Dr Elena Cirkovic

This interdisciplinary conference will connect researchers working on all aspects of climate change from across the Max Planck Society, to build connections between Institutes and researchers, identify common themes, and support inter-Institute and interdisciplinary work. The focus of the conference will be on the interdisciplinary communication of our research to make it accessible to colleagues from different disciplines across the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities, and thus to build collaborations across the MPG.

Call for papers: https://law.mpg.de/event/max-planck-climate-conference-for-a-sustainable-anthropocene/

Register here by 18:00 on 12 May.

14 July, online | ‘Introduction to Comparative Law Method(s)’ by Prof. Ralf Michaels

Legal research benefits from studying different laws and relies on implicit comparison with one's own legal system, making most legal research comparative. Professor Ralf Michaels' presentation on comparative legal methods will explore how to compare laws, the discipline's state of the art, and its role in decolonizing legal research. This will clarify important topics and highlight the increasing significance of comparative legal methods in contemporary legal scholarship.

Register here by 17:00 on 10 July

Initiatives

‘Initiatives’ are a framework though which Max Planck Law aims at facilitating cooperation and collaboration between researchers across our ten Institutes. Initiatives are bottom-up, researcher-led activities and as such differ from the Max Planck Law Curriculum. Establishing and engaging in an Initiative enables researchers – at the grassroots – to broaden their horizons through inter- and intra-disciplinary exchanges and research.

Several researchers from the MPI Luxembourg have initatiated MPL intitiatives and organise workhops and lectures through the network.

Contact

MPL Liaison Officer: Nathalie Perrin