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Law is a central element of social and political order - with it, power is institutionalized, actions are structured and sanctioned. Fundamental concepts of order are expressed and legitimised by law. This is especially true of gender difference. Until equal rights won out as the norm, differentiating legal capacities of persons by their gender meant assigning distinct forms of legally defined agency to men and women and to fix gender hierarchy. Nevertheless, even while formal equality is established throughout Europe since the 20th century, gender difference in law remains a precarious question. The present volume documents the fifth conference of the international research network "Gender Difference in the History of European Legal Cultures".

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Karin Gottschalk ist Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am Historischen Seminar der Universität Frankfurt a.M.

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