Research Interests
Criminal law, legal philosophy, cultural diversity, criminal procedural law, constitutional law, security politics, global conflicts
Research Areas
Germany, Europe, Middle East
Profile
Nikko Kulke is a PhD candidate in the Law & Anthropology Department of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle. He is a part of the Cultural and Religious Diversity under State Law across Europe (CUREDI) research group. In addition to having a law degree from Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg (Germany), he studied law, Islamic studies and political science in the Netherlands and Turkey. His current research focuses on the role of criminal law in a fragmented and multicultural society. In doing so, he pursies various legal, theoretical, and philosophical approaches, as well as those from anthropology with a special interest in decolonial theory. In addition, he examines conflict regions in the Middle East and the collapse of legal systems.
Why Law & Anthropology?
The interdisciplinary combination of law and social anthropology enables me to understand concrete actions relevant to criminal law and relate them to norms in an innovative way. Furthermore, this perspective on law allows me to critically question the existing fundamental assumptions upon which the law is built and thus to engage with a wholly new perspective on law. Law can be understood as the codified expression of reflections on the past that are interpreted and confronted with present-day problems and issues. Anthropology makes it possible to have a more accurate grasp of the social reality of human beings in their present social contexts.