Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Susanne Baer

Welcome to the Law and Society Institute Berlin

The Berlin Law and Society Institute (LSI) is the Humboldt University's centre for interdisciplinary socio-legal studies. The Institute aims to integrate the long tradition of German Sociology of Law with the international Law and Society research, and to supplement doctrinal legal thinking with the systematic inclusion of social science and the humanities.

Institutional structure

The LSI Berlin was founded in the fall of 2008 by Federal Constitutional Court Judge Prof. Dr. Susanne Baer, LL.M. (Michigan) In September 2014, the institute was brought into the Humboldt-Universität’s institutional strategy in the framework of the Excellence Initiative and funding line: “Educating Enquiring Minds. Individuality – Openness – Guidance”. Academic directorship of the LSI has since then been composed of Prof. Dr. Philipp Dann, LL.M.Dr. Sarah Elsuni and Prof. Dr. Anna-Bettina Kaiser, LL.M., Dr. Larissa Vetters is the academic coordinator.

Interdisciplinary Research

The Institute engages in theoretical and applied research. It analyses legal practices in legislation, jurisprudence and legal mobilization as well as their social consequences, while considering the social, economic, political and cultural contexts in which they exist. Respecting disciplinary particularity, the Institute uses methods and theories appropriate to the questions studied. The Institute offers to all students of law a place to conduct interdisciplinary research with an international comparative perspective. Insights gained into the role of law in society - at local, national and global levels - is made available to scholars and practitioners to help them reflect critically on their position in the legal system.

Service

The Institute organizes lectures, seminars, workshops and conferences for jurists, social scientists and humanities scholars as well as the interested public. It initiates, sponsors, and coordinates research projects and provides expertise and infrastructure. We encourage the participation of junior scholars.

Cooperation

Berlin is home to a number of related research centers such as the Social Science Research Center Berlin, the German Institute for Human Rights and the Institute for the Sociology of Law and the Research on Legal Facts. We are also seeking co-operation with local organizations involved in legal policy-making, from the federal parliament and ministries to non-governmental organizations and associations. The institute will collaborate with German academic socio-legal associations and establish a network of national and international co-operations with research institutions in and beyond universities. In its efforts to encourage socio-legal research among younger scholars, the Institute will work closely together with graduate programs such as the Berlin Graduate School of Social Science and the Berlin Working Group on Socio-legal Studies.

 

For more information...

...please visit the website of the Law and Society Institute.