Berlin Law & Society Institute Mission Statement
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 is directed by Prof. Dr. Susanne Baer, LL.M., executive officers are Christian Boulanger and Alexander Klose. An Academic Board and an International Advisory Board oversee and govern the Institute's activities. The Institute also maintains a network of Associated Scholars.Interdisciplinary Research
The LSI 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 themreflect critically on their position in the legal system.
Topics
The LSI currently concentrates on the following research areas:
- Legal implementation and evaluation studies,
- Conditions of the enforcement of law within and beyond the courts,
- Preconditions and development of the rule of law in diverse societies,
- Law as a cultural phenomenon, law in language and media, law in common knowledge or as an instrument of domination.
Service
The LSI 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.
