Legal history of the "Reichsland Elsass-Lothringen"

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Martin Löhnig
• Subject Area: Principles of Law and Jurisprudence
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 456112356

The Franco-German border region, regardless of where the border ran, was a hybrid region even in modern times, characterised not only by multilingualism, polyconfessionalism and multiple loyalties and identities, but also by legal-cultural exchange and legal plurality; it also served as a laboratory for testing new models. After 1815, French law continued to apply as Baden or Rhenish law in several member states of the German Confederation and had a considerable influence on the development of law in these states, while conversely, the discussion of German civil law with the Code Civil was widely received in France. However, this only addresses one, well-researched side of these processes. The other side, which had not yet been researched, concerns the introduction and validity of German law in the "Reichsland Elsass-Lothringen" (1871-1918) and in Eastern France up to the present day. This desideratum has now been partially fulfilled: For the first time, the research project funded by the DFG examined the emergence of the legal system of the "Reichsland" and its continued existence beyond 1918 as droit local, the institutions and persons involved in the application of this law, and (as an example) the practice of the courts of the Reichsland and the Reichsoberhandelsgericht, which had replaced the Cour de Cassation as the Court of Cassation. In the second phase of the research project, the political and legal administration of Alsace-Lorraine from 1871-1918 will be examined comprehensively for the first time against the backdrop of the concept of the "restoration" of this territory as a German sub-region. In addition, there will be a comprehensive analysis of first-instance jurisprudence, which will extend beyond the threshold of 1918 and above all focus on the situation of French-German families. Finally, based on the analysis of the droit local, a comparison will be made with northern Italy (especially South Tyrol/Trentino), where a mixed legal system with its own legal culture is likely to have emerged after 1918.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants