Peter Collin has been with the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory (formerly the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History) since 2008. After studying law in Berlin (1987-1991) and his legal clerkship (1991-1994), he was DFGFellow at the Graduate School for European Legal History in Frankfurt am Main from 1994 to 1997. In 1999 he received his doctorate with a thesis in the field of the history of criminal law at Humboldt University in Berlin. From 1997 to 1999 he worked in legal practice; from 2000 to 2008 he was a research assistant at the Chair of Public Law and European Administrative History (Prof. Erk Volkmar Heyen) at the University of Greifswald. There he obtained a post-doctoral qualification (Habilitation) in public law, modern legal and administrative history, and science of public administration in 2008.
E-Mail: collin@lhlt.mpg.de
Research interest
Law determines and influences architectures in many ways: urban planning standards decide what is allowed to be built and where. Architectural laws determine who is allowed to build.
Building regulations law not only defines requirements for distance spaces, building materials, minimum door widths, etc., but also regulates aesthetic questions with prohibitions on defacement. Architects’ fee regulations indirectly determine which effort architects can spend on what. Anyone who wants to build a house must go through a complicated, legally regulated procedure. On the other hand, architecture itself creates normativity: Architecture symbolizes normative ideas. Architectural arrangements constitute access rights and standardize uses. All of this can be traced back historically. An intensive dialogue between architectural and legal history is therefore a rewarding undertaking.
