Research interests:
Private law; tenancy law; socio-legal studies; access to justice; right to the city; law and diversity; civil procedure law
Research areas:
Germany, Berlin
Profile
Lisa Simonis is a PhD Candidate at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Dept. Law & Anthropology, affiliated with the research group “Transformations in Private Law: Culture, Climate, and Technology”, led by Professor Mareike Schmidt. She completed her law studies at the University of Münster and the University of Helsinki, and passed the first state exam in law in 2023. Her current research focuses on the incorporation of extralegal circumstances and legal change in German residential tenancy law. To this end, qualitative methods from anthropology are used to investigate how social, cultural, and economic circumstances are translated into law in individual cases.
Why Law and Anthropology?
The method of courtroom ethnography as developed in anthropology enables me to observe and record the interactions between law and the social, cultural, and economic realities of the parties involved in legal disputes. Such insights help me to gain a better understanding of whether and, if so, how law transforms and adapts to changing circumstances in the everyday legal practice of German residential tenancy law. This is especially important as housing is a fundamental aspect of human life – as well as a human right – with profound social, political, and integrative implications.