Working Group Law

The Center focusses on law, understood as the borders of law. The borders of law encompass what Eugen Ehrlich called living law (gelebtes Recht, 1913) – binding norms of behavior that do not originate in the state –, as well as legality, whatever people understand to be ‘law-full’ (Greta Olson 2022). The borders of law also comprise what Rudolph von Jhering and other legal theorists termed Rechtsgefühle (1872) – the passionate feelings that people have about law and justice. Living law, legality, and Rechtsgefühle are cultural-legal domains that need to be elucidated in terms of their forms and social functions.

The borders of law can also be understood metaphorically to include normative assumptions regarding difference, solidarity, and equality and hence relate to diversity. The borders of law also intersect with critical media literacy. Hashtag Jurisprudence (Cassandra Sharp 2022), that is social media exchanges about issues such as migration, increasingly impact on public policies.