The project addresses the demand for equal treatment as a means of social integration. The law can prescribe unequal treatment and thus establish social divisions, but it can also become a means against discriminatory exclusion, as can be seen in the example of the German General Act on Equal Treatment (AGG). At the same time, legally enforced equal treatment can in turn trigger social counter-discourses.

The project examines the role of law in inhibiting and promoting equality, inter alia with regard to race, gender, and economic equality. To date, specific research contexts include:

• German Colonial Law, its role in the exercise of domination, and its racist regulation of access to justice
• Individual distributional preferences, which can determine (legal) unequal or equal treatment

Researchers in the project group use methods ranging from discourse and text analysis to behavioral economics and computerized laboratory experiments.

Researchers: Susanne Baer, Sven Hoeppner, Ulrike Schaper