Marie-Claire Foblets

Marie-Claire Foblets serves as Director of the Department of Law & Anthropology at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, part of the Max Planck Society. She joined the Max Planck Society in March 2012 with the mandate to establish this new department, leveraging her dual expertise in legal practice and anthropological research.

Professor Foblets earned her legal education at the universities of Antwerp (1977-1979) and Leuven (1979-1982) in Belgium while simultaneously studying Thomist philosophy. She furthered her philosophical studies through a fellowship at Wilhelms-Universität of Münster (1982-1983) and completed her social and cultural anthropology studies in 1985.

Her research program critically examines how legal systems interact with cultural and religious diversity, with particular focus on social anthropological analysis of legal practice, religious diversity in secular contexts, European migration and asylum policy, transnational citizenship frameworks, human rights protection mechanisms, Islam in Europe, and international family law. Professor Foblets approaches these topics through comparative analysis of European and Maghreb contexts, revealing how different societies balance universal human rights principles with cultural specificity.

Her methodological innovation lies in bridging theoretical anthropological frameworks with practical legal applications, creating actionable insights for policymakers while advancing academic understanding of legal pluralism in contemporary societies.

• Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts (KVAB) membership (2001)
• Francqui Prize, Belgium's most distinguished scientific award in humanities (2004)

Professor Foblets has extensive academic leadership experience, having taught law and social/cultural anthropology for over twenty years at the universities of Antwerp and Brussels. Prior to her Max Planck appointment, she served as full professor and head of the Institute for Migration Law and Legal Anthropology at Catholic University of Leuven. She has directed numerous research initiatives and mentored generations of scholars in interdisciplinary approaches to law and society. Her collaborative work includes significant contributions to networks focused on Islamic law in Europe and European migration law, notably serving as co-president of the Association française d'anthropologie du droit (AFAD) for several years.

At the Max Planck Institute, Professor Foblets leads a multidisciplinary research team examining how legal frameworks accommodate cultural and religious practices across diverse societies, with particular emphasis on European contexts and their relationship with North African nations. Her department has become a leading center for anthropological approaches to legal studies, influencing both scholarly discourse and policy development regarding religious freedom, migration governance, and cultural rights in pluralistic societies.