How and Why Do Law Courts Quote? Quotations and References in Verdicts of the Bundesverfassungsgericht und the Supreme Court of Canada (B02#)

• Subject Area: German Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern German Literature) ; Principles of Law and Jurisprudence
• Term: from 2019 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 403589434

Courts of law typically use quotations and references from cases in higher courts for their verdicts. However, they also refer to legal literature, verdicts from other legal systems or, indeed, literary texts. While in the former, the strategy to quote is part and parcel of the functional logic of law courts, the examples of the latter have no direct legal authority whatsoever. This project will provide a comparative study of the reasons law courts have to refer to such sources nevertheless and the methods they employ when doing so.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1385: Law and Literature
• Applicant Institution: Universität Münster
• Project Heads: Dr. Lars Korten; Professor Dr. Niels Petersen