About us
Excellence in Legal Research
Max Planck Law is a network of nine Institutes engaging in legal research. The first of these was established in Berlin in 1924. Today, we cover a broad range of legal studies, from the anthropology of law to tax law, in nine different locations across Germany.
As part of the Max Planck Society, we are committed to its mission of pushing the frontiers of legal knowledge. Our approach is intra- and interdisciplinary, and we have a strong focus on comparative and transnational research questions.
With over 400 researchers, 20 Directors and 9 Institutes, we operate the world’s largest programme for doctoral and postdoctoral research in law. We offer excellent conditions and generously funded positions for early career researchers. Additionally, hundreds of academic visitors from all over the world join us in any given year.
An important aim of Max Planck Law is to foster cooperation and collaboration between our researchers, thereby promoting inter- and intra-disciplinary synergies between the ten law-related Max Planck Institutes.
We do this by, amongst other things, providing support for a number of grassroots Initiatives (eg Law and Africa, Max Planck Law | Tech | Society, and the Minerva Law Network), to enable researchers from our ten specialized law Institutes to work together, exchange ideas, hold conferences, invite speakers, produce research outputs, etc.
We also foster collaborative relations with partners from around the world, including University of Cambridge, University of Melbourne, and University of Toronto.