Larissa Vetters

Larissa Vetters is a senior research fellow at the Department 'Law & Anthropology' at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, Germany. As a political and legal anthropologist with specialized training in administrative sciences, she conducts ethnographic fieldwork in Southeastern Europe and Germany, focusing on the intersection of state institutions, legal frameworks, and everyday practices.

Dr. Vetters' research program centers on understanding how legal systems operate in practice, particularly through her innovative concept of 'lived migration orders' which examines migration governance through multiple, often contradictory legal regimes. Her scholarship bridges anthropological and legal traditions, creating novel approaches to understanding state power, citizenship, and legal personhood. She investigates how administrative practices shape legal outcomes and how individuals navigate complex bureaucratic systems, with particular attention to how uncertainty in legal recognition can simultaneously undermine and enable social security for migrants.

Her recent publication record reveals a strong interdisciplinary focus spanning legal anthropology, political ethnography, and administrative law. Through detailed ethnographic work in German administrative courts and migration systems, she examines the practical implementation of legal frameworks, showing how seemingly technical administrative decisions carry profound implications for rights and belonging. Her collaborative work, particularly on legal pluralism in migration contexts, demonstrates how anthropological perspectives can transform doctrinal legal analysis.

As co-editor of 'Leading Works in Law and Anthropology' (2024), Dr. Vetters has made significant contributions to the intellectual history of interdisciplinary legal research. Her analytical approach combines deep ethnographic insight with rigorous legal analysis, offering new perspectives on longstanding questions about state sovereignty, citizenship, and the relational nature of legal authority in contemporary societies.