Prof. Dr. Josef Bongartz awarded Peregrinus Foundation Prize

Prof. Dr. Josef Bongartz, who has been teaching private and commercial law at HFU Business School since winter semester 23/24, has been awarded the Peregrinus Foundation Prize by the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. The award recognises his outstanding achievements in the field of law. This includes his involvement in interdisciplinary networks promoting dialogue between law and history, as well as his dissertation on “Court and Procedure in the City and Bishopric of Würzburg. The Princely Chancellery as the Center of (Appellate) Jurisdiction until 1618”.

Bongartz's work traces the development of jurisdiction in the transition from the late Middle Ages to the early modern period and analyses the professionalisation and territorialisation of the courts in the Holy Roman Empire. In particular, he examines the interactions between the emergence of instances, the professionalisation of court personnel, and the influence of Roman law. A particular focus is on the development of the Würzburg chancery court as a high court that has been little researched to date.

Besides legal history, Prof. Bongartz's research interests include civil law, in particular family and inheritance law, as well as civil procedure law. His legal history studies deal with the court system and discursive processes of the early modern period and their impact on the present day.

“I am delighted to receive this award from the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the recognition it brings to my research in legal history,” says Prof. Bongartz, adding that this is not only a clear commitment to interdisciplinary research, but also shows that legal history research still has something to tell us today. "In my view, knowledge of the past and the possibility of ex-post analysis also provide analytical tools and criteria for the present. Good historical research and, above all, stimulating teaching on (legal) history must therefore also establish links to the present and the future, without attempting to draw clichéd lessons from history. In this respect, it also stimulates legal research, which always has close ties to current political practice," said Bongartz, who also emphasizsd the importance of academic freedom in this context, “Humanities research in particular carries the risk of shaking established social paradigms and therefore displeasing those who have an interest in preserving existing power and domination structures. Academic freedom allows us these discursive upheavals and is thus an integral part of liberal democracies that we should defend.”

Many areas of the humanities cannot justify their usefulness in immediate economic terms and are therefore heavily dependent on state funding for science, according to Bongartz. "This willingness on the part of the state to engage in self-criticism and to protect its critics is absolutely worth preserving as a prerequisite for liberal democracy and, above all, must be defended today against those who continue to claim loudly that democracy and the rule of law have been effectively abolished, while at the same time longing for a new political leadership that will eliminate everything uncomfortable and bury the values they claim to uphold. This recognition encourages me to work together with my colleagues at the HFU Business School and our students to create an environment that is open to criticism.

Furtwangen University would like to wholeheartedly congratulate Prof. Dr. Josef Bongartz on this award!