Culture as a Normative Argument Illustrated by the Example of the Classification of Animals as Pets in Residential Tenancy Law
by Lisa Katharina Simonis
Question(s) at stake
Whether keeping chickens is part of the contractually agreed use of a rented apartment in a German city.
Outcome of the ruling
The keeping of chickens is not part of the contractually agreed use of a rented apartment in the city. The defendant is ordered to remove the chickens from his apartment and is prohibited from acquiring chickens again in the future without the plaintiff’s permission.
Country:
Official citation
Local Court Cologne, Judgment of 16 June 2010, 214 C 255/09 (AG Köln, Urteil vom 16. Juni 2010, 214 C 255/09)
Topic(s)
Keywords:
Landlords Tenants Contracts Interpretations of behaviour
Tag(s):
Kulturkreis Duty of Considerateness Social conditions Animal welfare
Bibliographic information
Access case report
View case report in the CUREDI databaseAbout the authors
Lisa Katharina Simonis (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Department Law and Anthropology, Germany)
Lisa Simonis is a PhD Candidate at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, affiliated with the research group ‘Transformations in Private Law: Culture, Climate, and Technology’, led by Prof Dr Mareike Schmidt. She completed her law studies at the University of Münster and the University of Helsinki and passed the first state examination in law. Her current research focuses on the influence of perceptions of normality in German residential tenancy law. To this end, qualitative methods from anthropology will be used to investigate how these perceptions become visible in tenancy law processes and how this influences the application of the law in individual cases.