Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory

The founding director of the institute was Helmut Coing (1964–1980). Dieter Simon (1980–2003), Walter Wilhelm (1970–1994), 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 Institute 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. Marietta Auer joined the Institute as director on September 1, 2020, and has since directed a third department of legal theory. At the turn of 2020/2021, the Institute was renamed and has since been known as the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory.

Currently, Marietta Auer, Thomas Duve, Dieter Simon and Stefan Vogenauer are Scientific Members of the Institute.

Under Helmut Coing the research focus of the Institute 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.

Since the directorship of Thomas Duve and Stefan Vogenauer the focus lies on the transnational approach to European Legal History by pursuing research in the fields of Global History and Comparative Law.

With the appointment of the new director Marietta Auer, the Institute has dedicated a third department to legal theory and thus expanded its field of research. This expansion has also been reflected in the name since 2021, which now takes a global view of legal history and legal theory and avoids a Eurocentric approach.

A particular challenge embraced by the Institute is to create historical and empirical bases for a critical study of the system of law in a globalized world. To this end, the Institute is paying increasing attention to the interrelationships between European and non-European legal systems.