The research group’s epistemological interest

The purpose of the a research group dedicated to work with legal cultural topics is to establish a forum for identification, analysis and discussion of question related to law as culture, its historical roots and specific challenges. A facilitator of the changes in legal cultures is the constantly increasing internationalization and Europeanisation of law. As consequences we can observe that overlapping competences and legal pluralism provoke resistance also among lawyers and politicians alike. Are the national legal cultures threatened or are we just lacking sufficient understanding for the ongoing changes? To find an answer to this and related questions the research group approaches the phenomenon ‘legal culture’ and ‘legal cultural change’ from very different methodological and philosophical perspectives.

The research group is not connected to a specific legal field or methodological approach, rather we study legal culture from different perspectives.

These perspectives are not limited to the legal historical and comparative perspective but involve also other fields and disciplines such as theology, geography, economy, literature, anthropology, philosophy, and network studies, just to name a few. Our cooperation with the Forum 1700, the phd-research school ATTR and the UiB-located research group on Literature and Religion underline this ambition to further our interdisciplinary approach. 

We have weekly meetings every Monday at 12.00-13.30 in meeting room 448 in JUSII. Due to the corona situation, all meetings can be attended digitally as well. We invite established researchers, PhD candidates and master students to present their projects, theses and methodological challenges at our weekly lunch seminars. In addition, the group arranges both regional, national and international workshops, seminars, presentations and conferences.