Max Planck Lawcast Max Planck Law

Guest: Alice Margaria (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology).

Defining what makes someone a father has become a complex task in contemporary Europe. What roles are attributed to genetics, marriage, gender, and active involvement in a child's life? Courts are increasingly grappling with these questions, prompted by a combination of societal shifts and scientific advancements, including assisted reproductive technologies and the growing social acceptance of LGBTQ families. In this episode, Alice Margaria reveals how the European Court of Human Rights has – perhaps inadvertently – played a significant role in reshaping notions of fatherhood. Indeed, in recent decades the Court has increased its focus on paternal care, thereby expanding the boundaries of legal fatherhood to encompass a growing number of unconventional fathers.

(Audio Production: www.citysoundstudio.de)

Guest: Nina Cozzi (Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory).

After the liberation of Italian territory from the Nazi-Fascist regime, the government begun work on the drafting of a new constitution. One of the most novel aspects of the 1948 constitution was Article 37, which entitled working women the right to equal pay with their male counterparts. In this episode, Nina Cozzi reconstructs the path that led to the introduction of equal pay in 1948, with a clear focus on how women’s access to what had previously been considered ‘male jobs’ provided the impetus for more frequent and vocal demands for fairness. Moreover, she highlights how employers reacted to this major legal innovation and ends by looking at whether the principle of equal pay in Italy has indeed stood the test of time.  

(Audio Production: www.citysoundstudio.de)

Guest: Jan Peter Schmidt (Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law).

In this episode Jan Peter Schmidt discusses the long-standing tradition that the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and Private International Law (MPI) has of providing expert opinions on foreign law for German courts. To this end, the MPI supports judges in resolving cross-border cases which according to the rules of private international law are to be decided not according to German law but to foreign law.

(Audio Production: www.citysoundstudio.de)

Guest: Philipp Sauter (Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law).

In this episode Christopher Murphy talks with Philipp Sauter about nuclear fusion. As opposed to nuclear fission, i.e., splitting a heavy atomic nucleus into smaller nuclei, nuclear fusion uses the opposite approach to combine - or fuse - light atomic nuclei into heavier ones.

Through recent scientific breakthroughs the possibility of using nuclear fusion to provide the world with a practically inexhaustible source of green energy has become tantalisingly close. Consequently, the time is right to discuss how this tremendous power should be best regulated to ensure maximum safety while not stifling scientific ingenuity.

(Audio Production: www.citysoundstudio.de)

Guest: Nadjma Yassari (Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law).

In this episode Christopher Murphy learns from Nadjma Yassari, head of the Research Group 'Changes in God’s Law' at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg, how societal beliefs and assumptions on the role of mothers and fathers have led legislatures in Germany and Iran to accept or reject egg donation to overcome infertility.

(Audio Production: www.citysoundstudio.de)

Guest: Erica Ollikainen-Read (Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory).



In this episode of the Lawcast, Erica Ollikainen-Read explains to Christopher Murphy that the British Empire was not just shipping, merchants, soldiers, cannon, and conquest. Rather, some of the most long-lasting parts of the British Empire are the ideas, laws, and symbols which Britain transplanted to their colonies, some of which remain to this day. One such case in point is India, where the British colonial presence and the nature of Britain’s priorities shifted over time. By viewing the law from the perspective of communication, we can see how colonial legal culture and the way in which it was used as a tool for control in India also changed.

(Audio Production: www.citysoundstudio.de)