Research Profile
The Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law belongs to the Human Sciences Section of the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association. There are three research departments in the Institute: the Department of Criminal Law, the Department of Public Law, and the Department of Criminology. The Institute’s research focus includes both basic research and, owing to its interdisciplinary approach to the legal and social sciences, applied research.
The appointment of a new executive team in 2019 came with a comprehensive reorientation of the key guiding principles for their research agendas. Fundamental research is at the heart of the Department of Criminal Law led by Professor Tatjana Hörnle. We analyze the normative premises and empirical foundations of the law in force and compare principles, rules, and practices in different legal systems. In addition to conducting basic research, our researchers develop proposals designed to improve criminal law and to adapt it to the changing conditions in fragmented, digitalized, and globalized societies. The Department of Public Law’s research agenda – under the direction of Professor Ralf Poscher – addresses the preventive aspects of security-related matters. Besides addressing theoretical and doctrinal questions, which are frequently of heightened relevance in security law, our research analyzes contemporary legal, technical, and social developments – internationalization, digitalization, and fragmentation – along with associated normative challenges of danger prevention regarding fundamental rights protection, the rule of law, and democratic principles. The research program of the Department of Criminology – under the direction of Professor Jean-Louis van Gelder – focuses on the theoretical and empirical explanations for conforming and deviant behavior. The objective is to explore how individual behavior manifests itself ad hoc, how it changes or develops over time, and how it can be explained. To this end, drawing primarily on psychological theories, innovative new research methods are employed, including computer-assisted experiments using virtual reality software.
These complementary research approaches enable us to address current security-relevant issues from a basic research perspective, analytically, and with an eye to influencing legal policy
The Institute
In 1938, Prof. Dr. Adolf Schönke, Chair of Criminal Law at the Faculty of Law and Political Science of the University of Freiburg, founded a department (or “Seminar”) of foreign and international criminal law. Almost a decade later, in 1947, the Seminar became the “Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law.” In 1966, the Institute was incorporated into the Max Planck Society (MPG) and renamed the “Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law.” Four years later, a criminology research group (today: Department of Criminology) was added, and in May 2019, the Institute was expanded to include a Department of Public Law. Its current name – Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law – dates to March 2020. The change was undertaken to reflect the expertise of the recently appointed directors and the reorientation of the Institute’s research focuses. This page contains an overview of the research projects completed at the Institute under its previous name (Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law).
The Building
The Institute moved into its striking, newly-built quarters in the Wiehre, a suburb of Freiburg, in 1978. The building itself is a clear example of Brutalist architecture. The heart of the four-story building is the library, which extends over several floors and currently holds some 500,000 volumes.
Alongside the IT and building services, the main building houses the offices of the Institute’s researchers, several seminar rooms, a lecture hall, a cafeteria, and extensive archival facilities. Two reading rooms with a total of 40 seats are available for use by guests, scholarship holders, and doctoral students. The latest issues of some 1,850 periodicals from Germany and abroad are accessible in the library’s periodicals reading room.
In 2008, space constraints saw the Institute extend its footprint to the surrounding neighborhood (Fürstenbergstrasse 19). This building houses the offices of the administration and members of the editing and press staff as well as seminar and meeting rooms and guest apartments.
