New Research Visiting Fellowship Scheme with UCL

Max Planck Law is pleased to announce the establishment of a new Research Visiting Fellowship scheme in collaboration with the UCL Faculty of Laws. This scheme marks a significant step in fostering academic exchange and research collaboration between the two esteemed institutions.

The scheme was formalized in Frankfurt on 17 May 2024, during a UCL delegation visit to mainland Europe. The delegation was led by Vice-Provost (Research, Innovation & Global Engagement), Professor Geraint Rees, and included Professor Eloise Scotford, Dean of UCL Laws, along with colleagues from UCL Global Engagement.

Under this new scheme, up to two PhD research students, postdocs, or academic staff from UCL Laws will have the opportunity to spend up to three months at any of the Institutes of their choice within the Max Planck Law network. In return, up to two PhD research students orpostdocs from within the Max Planck Law network will be able to spend up to three months at the UCL Faculty of Laws.

Professor Stefan Vogenauer, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory said: ‘We are delighted and honoured that UCL Laws has chosen to enter into an exchange agreement with Max Planck Law. It will be an unrivalled opportunity for our researchers to spend some time at one of the finest law schools, and we look forward to receiving their outstanding scholars for research stays at our Institutes.’

Professor Scotford said ‘Our partnership with Max Planck Law opens doors to unparalleled access to specialized legal communities for our researchers. This valuable opportunity strengthens the intellectual ties between our institutions consistent with our outstanding research environments.’

This new visiting fellowship scheme is a valuable addition to our existing network of exchanges, which includes partnerships with distinguished law schools in Melbourne, Singapore, Cambridge, and the European University Institute (EUI).

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The curriculum is one of the core offerings of Max Planck Law. The first course was held 14–15 January 2021 by Prof. Hélène Ruiz Fabri (Director MPI-Luxembourg) on the question ‘What is procedural law?’ (Video) This course and every course until recently was held virtually due to the pandemic.

There was a celebratory mood when the first course held in person took place last week over a sunny two days at MPI for Social Anthropology . The course was entitled ‘Law and Anthropology: Rethinking Normativities, Legal Dynamics, Approaches and Practices’. Participants from across the Max Planck Law network, as well as a few invited from outside the network, gathered to learn about how the techniques of legal anthropology could ultimately come in useful for their own doctoral or postdoctoral research.

Prof. Marie-Claire Foblets (Director MPI-Halle), kicked off the session. The rest of the two days involved presentations and group sessions with the researchers in Prof. Foblets’s department ‘Law and Anthropology’, ably organized by Dr Alice Margaria. A highlight was a keynote conversation on the ‘EctHR between Law and Anthropology’ between Prof. Jessica Greenberg (Univ. of Illinois) and Prof. Angelika Nußberger (Univ. of Cologne), moderated by Dr Alice Margaria. This was simultaneously live streamed to a large audience that had registered beforehand.

This was an opportunity for Max Planck Law researchers to not only take advantage of the expertise from another Institute, but to also make connections with other researchers with similar research interests.

Zixuan Yang, a new doctoral researcher at , was very happy to be able to attend, ‘I will learn much about methodology and the research perspectives of other colleagues’. Admitting that she had previously studied mainly doctrinal approaches to law, she added ‘I am very glad to have the chance to learn new methods’.

Harrison Mbori travelled from , where he is a doctoral researcher. After completing the course, Harrison remarked ‘the course helped me comprehend how vital the use of anthropological methodologies and methods can be in assessing, studying, and understanding legal phenomena.’ He continued, ‘it awakened and revitalized my interest and desire to consider and use anthropological methods and approaches in my research’.