Rechtsgeschichte – Legal History 34 (2026) out now

11. September 2026

The new issue of the Rechtsgeschichte — Legal History 34 (Journal of the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory) is now available in print and online in Open Access via the journal's website.

Last year saw the publication of two significant new books on Rudolf von Jhering, one of the most original legal scholars of the 19th century. In the Research section of this year’s issue of our Institute journal, the books’ authors present their findings for discussion. While Michael Kunze traces Jhering’s life-long quest for a secular foundation of law as an invisible normative order, Mathias Reimann finds both brilliant insights and chaotic tendencies in Jhering’s writings.

Dave De ruysscher’s article on the history of bills of exchange in Western Europe argues that their regulatory framework remained relatively indeterminate between c. 1450 and 1680. Only gradually did a synthesis of Genoese and Dutch methodologies establish itself as the dominant approach. Beate Althammer explores the history of pardoning practices as a part of 19th-century criminal justice reforms. Her analysis of petitions for royal mercy in England and Prussia leads her to question the narrative of a linear change of legal order and pardoning practices. Triin Tark offers a Baltic perspective on the translation of legal texts during the interwar period. She demonstrates how the consistent terminology for ethnic minorities used in the Estonian Law on Cultural Autonomy (1925) was replaced with an eclectic mix of vocabulary by the League of Nations’ translators.

The Research section is completed by Erk Volkmar Heyen taking a closer look at the iconography of the courtroom table from the joint perspective of art and legal history. His analysis of 19th-century French and Belgian satirical images of the judiciary focuses on the relationship between religion and the state.

Art and creativity are also the subjects of this year‘s Forum section. Its 15 short contributions explore the possibilities opened up by creative methods in legal history from a global perspective – with examples from the Americas, Africa and India.

This issue‘s Critique section offers 33 reviews of recent publications relevant to the study of legal history from late antiquity to the 21st century. Under Comptes rendus, we briefly present some key publications by researchers at our Institute.

Thorsten Keiser‘s Marginalia contribution deals with a key characteristic of the Venetian Republic’s constitution from the late Middle Ages to the 18th century: the anonymous denunciation (denuncia segreta). The print issue‘s series of images is also devoted to Venice; the various selected views of the lagoon city all stem from the extensive collections of Frankfurt’s Städel Museum.

Rechtsgeschichte — Legal History 34 is now available in print from the publishers Vittorio Klostermann and online in Open Access via the journal's website.

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