China-Nachmittag (China Afternoon)
MPI for Private Law, Hamburg, 05.08.2009
On Wednesday, 5 August 2009, the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg will host a "China Afternoon" as part of its ongoing "Hamburg Lecture Series on Chinese Law“. The presentations of the guest speakers, Prof. Dr. HAN Shiyuan, Tsinghua University of Beijing, Prof. Dr. DU Tao, Fudan University in Shanghai, and Dr. MAO Xiaofei, Chinese Academy for Social Sciences in Beijing, will provide insight on the current state of legal development in the People's Republic of China.The Hamburg lectures on Chinese Law shed light on legal questions and legal fields which are currently being addressed in the People's Republic of China and consequently are of considerable international significance. The lecture series is organised by the leader of the China Unit at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, Knut B. Pissler.
The afternoon will begin with a talk by Prof. Dr. HAN Shiyuan. He will discuss a project for the establishment of independent legal commentary in China which aims to enhance the quality and predictability of Chinese court decisions and correspondingly contribute to legal certainty and the rule of law in the People's Republic of China. To date, China lacks a legal medium that presents court decisions and scholarly opinions directly in relation to specific legal provisions.
Prof. Dr. DU Tao will then speak on party autonomy and judicial intervention in international contracts. Private international law is currently under draft reform in China with new legislation to comprise the 9th book of a future Chinese civil code. Prof. Tao's lecture will address the question whether China will pursue a unilateral model emphasising mandatory laws, corresponding to a new course being charted by US private international law (the "political" school of private international law), or whether they will instead follow a classic ("apolitical") model of general conflict of laws rules which trace back to the teachings of Friedrich Carl von Savigny.
Dr. MAO Xiaofei will, in conclusion, illuminate a topic of great current interest: the application of Chinese anti-monopoly law in respect of state firms. The anti-monopoly law took effect in August 2008. The law acknowledges the existence of a market-dominant state economy and state monopolies, yet it subjects them to supervision and regulation. Problems subsequently arise as regards the relationship between the state bodies having control of the economic branches in question and the supervision of these firms which is envisioned by the anti-monopoly law as a protection against the abuse of a market-dominant position.
The Speakers:
Professor Dr. HAN Shiyuan commenced his studies at the Jilin University and obtained his doctorate at the Chinese Academy for Social Sciences. Since 2005 he has held a full professorship on the legal faculty of the Tsinghua University in Beijing. From October 2006 through September 2007 Prof. HAN was a guest researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law.
Professor Dr. DU Tao studied at the Wuhan-University. He completed his dissertation "Das Deutsche Internationale Privatrecht" (German Private International Law) at the same location in 2002. He has been an associate professor on the legal faculty of the Fudan-University in Shanghai since 2006 and is currently a scholarship holder of the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law.
Dr. MAO Xiaofei studied in Frankfurt am Main with an emphasis in Chinese and European competition law. She is a research associate with the Chinese Academy for Social Sciences in Beijing. Among her efforts, she counselled the legal committee of the National People's Congress in regards to the drafting of the anti-monopoly law. She also assisted the Chinese National Bureau of Trade and Manufacturing in its formulation of guidelines on the implementation of anti-monopoly law.
The lectures will be held in German.
Participation at the event is free and does not require advance registration.
Date of publication: 08.07.2009
Language
German
Flyer on the MPI China Unit (in German) (245.1 KB)