From 2010 to 2014, Rechtskulturen was a research and fellowship program at the Forum Transregionale Studien and a project of the Berlin Research Network Recht im Kontext (Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin). The program was supported by the VolkswagenStiftung. Until December 2013, it had been funded by the Land of Berlin (Senatsverwaltung für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Forschung). Rechtskulturen was associated with the Faculty of Law at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Until 2014, it was directed by Susanne Baer and Christoph Möllers (until May 2014 together with Alexandra Kemmerer).
Wed 26 Jun 2019
Rechtskulturen
Rechtskulturen took on the challenges of internationalizations and responded to the necessity to understand law in its particular cultural contexts. One central aspect was the interest in systematic confrontations of different understandings of law, its functionalities and specific cultural techniques. From a genuinely legal perspective that acknowledges legal studies as an academic discipline geared towards specific professions (“Professionsfakultät”), the program provided space for transregional and interdisciplinary communication about law. At the same time, the irritation by the particular “others” shall not be tamed and circumvented by the premature assumption of a common tertium comparationis, and shall not be functionalized by a narrow, purely legal-pragmatic perspective.
Rechtskulturen integrated, as a network of interdisciplinary research on law, systematic and area-specific approaches. The program explored the foundations and contexts of law in a plural world where competitive and complementary multiplicities of legal and normative orders are part of social reality. Sophisticated comparisons and productive confrontations were facilitated and encouraged by the invitation of seven research fellows per year, coming from all corners of the globe, as well as by the exploration and development of new communication and research formats.