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.
The Global Law and the Humanities Mentorship Programme
The Center for Diversity, Media, and Law is proud to be a partner organization of the Global Law and the Humanities Mentorship Programme. Launched on 28 October 2025, this programme involves several national and international law and humanities organizations, including LCH; the Law and the Humanities Hub at IALS, London; the Italian Society for Law and Literature; the Law, Literature and Humanities Association of Australasia; the Netherlands Research School for Literary Studies (OSL) - Literature, Law and Society Research Group, and Iura Vasconiae.
As the first program of its kind globally, it supports early-career scholars–Ph.D., D.Phil., or J.D. candidates, as well as those who earned their doctorate within the past seven years—by connecting them with experienced mid- to senior-career mentors. These mentorship pairs provide guidance on methodological challenges, resource navigation, publication strategies, job market preparation, and research profile development. The programme aims to strengthen networks that cross geographical and disciplinary boundaries, to foster academic excellence and joy, and to counteract the “interdisciplinary loneliness” often felt by scholars through the creation of one-to-one mentorship pairs.
For more information or to become a mentor or mentee, please visit the official program website. |
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