In 1955 the Institute of Research and Study in Medieval Canon Law was registered in Washington D.C. as a 'non-stock, non profit' corporation according to US Law. The headquarters of the Institute were transferred to Yale in 1964, to Berkeley in 1970 and were relocated to Munich as of 1991. In 1964 the name of the Institute was changed to Institute of Medieval Canon Law for everyday use; in 1996 it was renamed the Stephan Kuttner Institute of Medieval Canon Law. The Institute obtained the position of an "Affiliated-Institute" of the University of Munich ("pursuant to § 129 V BayHSchG [Bavarian Law on Universities] position of a scientific institution at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich") in the year 2000. 

The organisation's task as an independent institution is to promote research in the area of medieval canon law and to promote and strengthen international scholarly exchange. One focal point of the Institute is the study of the twelfth-century Decretum Gratiani and of the legal scholars who, in subsequent centuries, exepanded and commented on both this work and on collections of papal letters, as well as the study of pre-Gratian canonical collections. The publication of texts that are not yet available in print form or in critical editions and the development of research aids, such as manuscript catalogues and bibliographies, serve this goal as does regular schedule of congresses and other events. 

The form of the Institute and its research organisation is inextricably linked with the person of Stephan Kuttner (1907 - 1996). From 1955 until 1991 he was President of the Board of Directors, from 1991 until 1996 Chairman of the Board; from 1988 Editor, subsequently Editor Emeritus of the series of the Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law; from 1965 - 1991 Chief Editor of the Monumenta Iuris Canonici. The Institute bears his name since 1996.

The Institute in Munich has rooms at its disposal in co-operation with the Leopold-Wenger-Institute, in which the materials are accessible to the scholarly public thanks to the University of Munich and the Bavarian Free State.

The following persons have been able to work for the Institute in Munich thanks to our sponsors:

R. Sorice, O. Condorelli, E. Vodola,  L. Kéry, O. Vervaart, L. Fowler-Magerl, A. Hetzenecker, B. Gilcher. G. Drossbach, M. Bodenstab, J. Rau