From Contract to Status. The Law of Service Contracts in the Frankfurt Letters of Service

• Applicant: Dr. Thomas Pierson
• Subject Area: Principles of Law and Jurisprudence
• Term: from 2014 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 265648957

The investigation of a preindustrial labour legislation is held predominantly for unessential because the juridical and social conditions for the formation of general rules would have been absent. Important sources show another picture. Juridically is to be inquired not about industrial or preindustrial, but about the sector of Work as an object of juridical regulation.Also, a high number of dependent employees existed preindustrially. As far as one argues that the law of contract has been limited to an in each case local and single-professional level, essential areas will overlook. An important and in the most different occupational fields active group were the urban civil servants. In Frankfurt lawyers, writers, craftsmen, soldiers, policemen, doctors, teachers, servants, messengers, customs officers and many others were active. New duties, for example in the community health, judicature, forestry or school system, raised the personnel requirement over and over again.The work will open up the developments of the law of contract of the urban civil servants as an essential basic form of the principle "free" service contract for the first time legal-historically. Key questions are the general questions about freedom, equality and social security.More specifically, it is about formal and substantive freedom of contract, around the juridical equal treatment of the employees, so whether and to what extent was distinguished between the different professions or whether the understanding of a consistent service law is noticeable throughout the contracts, and around the solution of social problems because of age, illness, or accidental invalidity. These problems are quite parallel in an industrialized working environment. Hence, the juridical, social and economic problem areas including their interdependences are examined with the analytical method of the problem history. In addition, longitudinal and cross-sectional studies will identify key lines of development. The source material is very extensive to all these questions.More than 2,300 'letters of service' (service contracts) of the Frankfurt Institute for Urban History, which originate from the 14th up to the early 19th century, are analyzed, in addition also police orders, oaths of office, and traditional contract conflicts.The analysis is based on the contractual contents along with their socio-economic contexts, i.e. statements regarding to contract initiation and termination of contract, breaches of contract including risk assumption, as well as the specific contemporary regulatory problems (such as wages system and loyalty duties).This research in a barely studied field allows new and important insights for problem solutions and developments of the service contract law, including the civil service law.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants