Max Planck Law is pleased to announce the launch of a new exchange partnership with the University of Melbourne Law School. The programme links two of the world’s most dynamic and respected institutions for the study of law.
Max Planck Law is a consortium of the ten law-related Max Planck Institutes based in Germany and Luxembourg. Involving 20 discipline-defining Directors and more than 400 researchers (PhD candidates and postdocs), Max Planck Law represents one of the world’s largest, most productive, and best funded frameworks for graduate legal education and foundational legal research.
For more than 150 years Melbourne Law School has been a leader in legal education and research, first in Australia and then in the wider-world. It counts several Australian Prime Ministers and Chief Justices among its alumni. The first woman to practice law in Australia graduated from the Law School. Melbourne launched Australia’s first Juris Doctor programme and moved into its state-of-the-art building in central Melbourne just twenty years ago. The Law School is a world-leading center for innovative legal research, ranking #5 in the Times Higher Education ranking of world law faculties. The Law School is an intellectual and policy presence in Melbourne, which is perennially ranked among the most livable cities in the world. An international review of the Law School recently concluded: ,No faculty of law in North America comes close to replicating the rich array of offerings, and the scope and diversity of teachers’, as those of Melbourne Law School’s graduate programme.
The new exchange programme will bring two Melbourne-based researchers to Germany for residence at one of Max Planck Law’s ten institutes each year. The visiting Melbourne researchers will be supported in Germany with a fellowship that covers accommodation and some living costs. They will be integrated into the dynamic life of a Max Planck Institute, with full access to the Institute’s research resources and its enriching calendar of programmes. At the same time, two Max Planck Law PhD candidates or postdoctoral researchers will be welcomed to Melbourne for up to three months. The costs of their travel to Australia will be covered by Max Planck Law.
Associate Dean Jianlin Chen of the Melbourne Law School called the exchange a ‘wonderful opportunity for both sides to reinvigorate international scholarly exchange as we emerge from the COVID pandemic lockdowns with a deeper appreciation for the irreplaceable value to academics of global mobility and new experiences’. Russell Miller, Head of Max Planck Law noted that ‘the programme participants will be bridging far-reaching corners of the world’s horizon-opening research in the law’.
The potential for synergy between the Melbourne Law School and Max Planck Law is profound. Both institutions are home to some of the most renowned and impactful legal scholars in Europe, Oceania, and the world. The Melbourne Law School hosts a number of centers and research institutes that intersect with the focus of many of the Max Planck Law Institutes.