The Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory in Frankfurt is a world leader in research on legal history and legal theory. We award several PhD student, post-doctoral and senior researcher scholarships to enable outstanding researchers to spend time at the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory. Scholarship holders are expected to pursue their own research project, which should relate to the department’s research agenda.
General Visitors' Programme (Marietta Auer/Stefan Vogenauer) - Scholarships and Guest Residencies
Each year, we invite PhD students, post-doctoral and senior scholars to visit the Institute for a number of months in order to use our library resources, take part in our events, and above all to discuss current questions of legal history and legal theory with us. In order to enable researchers from institutions outside Germany to benefit from a longer stay at the Institute, the departments Multidisciplinary Theory of Law (Marietta Auer) and European and Comparative Legal History (Stefan Vogenauer) award a number of scholarships for PhD students, post-doctoral researchers and senior scholars.
Please note that scholarships and guest stays for the department Historical Regimes of Normativity (Thomas Duve) are organised separately, and applications for 2026 are now closed.
Please click here for detailed information on the visitor's programme.
Applications should be written in English and consist of the following documents:
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Research proposal (up to 10,000 characters), including an explanation as to how the project relates to the Department’s main research activities
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CV
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List of publications
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Three relevant publications of the last five years (as PDFs)
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Names and contact details of two scholars who have agreed to provide references (upon request)
Please submit your application at least six months before your preferred period of stay.
The scholarships usually have a duration of either 3 or 6 months. Once the scholarship has been granted, changes of the date of the beginning will not be accepted. Scholarship holders will receive a monthly stipend of either €1,365 (PhD students), €2,500 (post-doctoral researchers) or €3,000 (senior researchers). Additional income (for example from existing employment relationships) has to be set off against the amount awarded and will thus be taken into account when determining the exact amount of the stipend.
Contact
International Office io@lhlt.mpg.de .