Julia Hütten

Julia Hütten is a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory in Frankfurt am Main, specializing in colonial legal systems and historical normativity. Her institutional affiliation stems from her doctoral work at the same institute (formerly Max Planck Institute for European Legal History) and Goethe University Frankfurt.

Her research focuses on colonial and customary law, particularly examining German colonial rule in the Pacific through projects like German identity, intermarriage, and divorce in Samoa: 1900–1914 and The role of local knowledge in German courts in the Pacific. She investigates how indigenous legal practices interacted with colonial frameworks, emphasizing family law dynamics and cultural identity. Her methodological approach combines legal anthropology with historical analysis, as reflected in her involvement in the Glocalising Normativities project.

• Colonial Legal Hybridity: Analysis of Samoan divorce cases under German administration
• Normative Pluralism: Interplay between European legal imports and Pacific customary systems
• Gender and Law: Impact of colonial policies on family structures

Hütten contributes to collaborative initiatives including Generation Knowledge and Legal History Practice Sources, working alongside scholars like Thomas Duve and Xinran Liu. Her interdisciplinary background bridges legal scholarship with anthropological perspectives.