New Post-Graduate Program: “Comparative Studies on Eurasian Law"
28.07.2009
MPI to begin program supporting junior researchers from the Caucasus and Central Asia who are interested in the comparative study of civil and economic law. The Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law has with the support of the Volkswagen Foundation commenced a new scholarship program for junior researchers from the Caucasus and Central Asia. Within the framework of a nine-month Institute stay, participating scholars will conduct comparative research on a civil or economic law theme of their own choosing having relevance in their home country. The aim of the research stay is to provide the scholarship recipients with insight on Western, particularly German, law and also to promote international discussion as well as the formation of scholarly networks. Simultaneously, the program will allow German researchers to establish academic contacts in the countries of their specialisation. The first program participants are expected in Spring 2010.The Program
"An enduring orientation by CIS nations on market economies and the rule of law will only be feasible if private law can - from the standpoint and valuation of the countries themselves - achieve an increased recognition as the intrinsic legal framework of civil societies", Prof. Jürgen Basedow, Managing Director of the Institute. "Even now, two decades after the end of the Soviet Union, a focus on market economies and individual rights has not yet prevailed in the legal scholarship of successor states." Prof. Basedow emphasised that the scholarship program is intended to transport the participants from the fixed positive law conceptions of their home countries in order to better facilitate the consideration of abiding legal principles finding expression elsewhere in the world. The program is targeted towards young legal scholars, 35 and under, from countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia such as Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan. The program strives not only to allow participants to examine their national law under a comparative lens with Western law, but also to investigate the extent to which Soviet law continues to exert an influence.
„The scholarship recipients will be able to further their legal qualifications with the result of enhanced opportunities in their future legal activities in their home countries," underscored Dr. Eugenia Kurzynsky-Singer, Institute Research Fellow responsible for the geographic region including the CIS countries. Kurzynsky-Singer foresees the results of the research finding application both in the program participants' countries of origin as well as in German comparative research efforts, especially as concerns transforming nations and Eastern European law.
The Volkswagen Foundation
The Volkswagen Foundation, centred in Hannover, supports research projects in all fields of scholarship. Particular emphasis is placed on junior researchers and cooperations which support scholarship transcending scientific, cultural and national borders. The largest foundation of its kind in Germany, it has, since its establishment in 1962, supported over 29,000 projects with total funding exceeding 3.5 billion dollars.
Program
contact: Dr. Eugenia-Kurzynsky-Singer