The Max Planck Institute for European Legal History in Frankfurt am Main was founded in 1964 under its first director Professor Helmut Coing (1912-2000). On his retirement in 1980, he was succeeded by Dieter Simon and Professor Walter Wilhelm. When Wilhelm retired in 1987 on health grounds,  Simon took the helm alone until 1991. Towards the end of 1991, Michael Stolleis was appointed. Since 1995 Simon has been President of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences in Berlin. In October 2001, Marie Theres Fögen was appointed an remaind in office until her death in 2008. Stolleis who had retired in 2006, returned to take over the temporary administration  of the Institute in September 2007. Since May 2009 the director has been Thomas Duve.

From 1964 until 1989 the academic council of the institute was chaired by Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Robert Feenstra (Leiden). His successor from 1990 until 1997 was Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. André Gouron (Montpellier). Professor Dr. Peter Pieler (Vienna) was chairman from 1998 until 2007.

The following were are members of the institute’s academic council until 2007

	Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Mario Ascheri, Siena
	Prof. Dr. Pio Caroni, Bern
	Prof. Dr. David Cohen, Chicago
	Prof. Dr. Jacques Krynen, Toulouse
	Prof. Dr. Aldo Mazzacane, Neapel
	Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Kjell Å. Modéer, Lund
	Prof. Dr. Karin Nehlsen - v. Stryk, Freiburg (stellvertr. Vorsitzende)
	Prof. Dr. Peter Pieler, Wien (Vorsitzender)
	Prof. Dr. Rudolf Stichweh, Bielefeld

The academic council of the Institute, the evaluation commission, the directors and the academic fellows’ representative, pictured in March 2006.

The academic councils serve to oversee and offer critical comment on the research projects of the Institute. By contrast, the advisory board (an institution which has already been established by the majority of Max Planck institutes) constitutes an organ in which academia and society, above all in the sectors of politics, the media and business, can meet in order to establish contacts of mutual interest and value. The MPI has now set up a board of this kind, which has already met once a year in 2003, 2004 and 2006.

The current members are:

	Patrick Bahners, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
	Eberhard Desch, Bundesministerium der Justiz
	Prof. Dr. Dieter Grimm, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin
	Traudl Herrhausen, Bad Homburg
	Dr. Christine Hohmann-Dennhard, Bundesverfassungsgericht (Vorsitz)
	Prof. Dres.h.c. mult. Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, Europäische Zentralbank
	Petra Roth, Oberbürgermeisterin der Stadt Frankfurt am Main
	Prof. Dr. Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer, Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel
	Rechtsanwalt Karl Starzacher, Düsseldorf
	Dr. Uwe Justus Wenzel, Neue Zürcher Zeitung