Migrationsbiographien in der deutschen Rechtswissenschaft

Diversity in legal scholarship and legal practice has been the subject of intense discussion in recent years and is increasingly regarded as an essential prerequisite for a sustainable and forward-looking legal academy and profession. Diversity is grounded in a wide range of characteristics. This volume focuses on the migration backgrounds of legal scholars teaching at German-speaking universities. It brings together 35 autobiographical accounts and explores the extent to which the authors' origins have influenced their academic careers: Were they an obstacle or an opportunity? Have they shaped research interests, methodologies, or perspectives? The contributions offer highly personal answers to these questions, without claiming representativeness or completeness. The authors recount very different life stories-some as immigrants themselves, others as children of immigrants. Their narratives reflect both the diversity of individual experiences and the varied motives and historical contexts of migration. They demonstrate that immigration has shaped the German-speaking world for decades, while also revealing how social conditions and attitudes toward immigrants have changed significantly over time. At the same time, the volume offers insights into the lived realities of families with migration backgrounds: the physical and emotional movement between countries and cultures, close family ties that transcend national borders, and the family as a source of identity, support, and personal development. Beyond migration itself, these contributions-spanning several generations-provide a compelling account of the transformation of the academic environment and the conditions of scholarly careers over the past five decades. The result is a multifaceted panorama of personal life stories that also opens up a new perspective on diversity in German-speaking legal scholarship.

Anatol Dutta (Herausgegeben von) holds the Chair of Civil Law, Private International Law and Comparative Law at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Matteo Fornasier (Herausgegeben von) holds the Chair of Civil Law, Labor Law, Private International Law and Comparative Law at the Ruhr University Bochum.