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Chair for Legal History at the University of Zurich (UZH).
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...because law can be understood as the conditio humana itself, as viewed from a particular angle. It can also be understood as a mere plan, a succeeding or failing plan, the realization of which might not be considered part of the law itself anymore, but might be relevant to future plans nonetheless. Law can be seen as an oracle, praised like divine wisdom or denounced as a manipulative instrument of the ruling class. The multiple changes that have taken place within human notions of the right and the legal, the many configurations of legal bonds and human associations in the course of history, the survival of certain legal institutions and the disappearance of others, the understanding of tradition, and the ways our own positions can be taken: all these are the great topics of legal history. It is an inexhaustible discipline which can be explored in terms of the cultural and social history of humanity, yet at the same time, it holds the opportunity to offer today’s diverse legal scholarship one of its few common elements. I study legal history because for all these reasons, it still has not let me go.
