Regional Units
The tasks allocated to the regional units include generating the legal advice with whose provision the Institute has been entrusted by courts, lawyers and agencies and also the creation of country reports which are to be included in comparative law expert reports. Recent examples would be the comparative law study on transsexuality, nationality and international private law that was commissioned by the Federal Constitutional Court – on which no less than eleven regional units were involved – and the expert report on prospectus liability which was commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Finance for which the Institute authored eight separate country reports. Additionally, many of the regional units carry editorial responsibilities. Thus, for example, legal journals focusing on Japanese and Chinese law are published respectively by the Japan unit and the China unit. In addition to producing publications addressing new legal developments in the regions for which they have been entrusted and organising region-specific legal conferences, the regional units also participate in large-scale, bilateral projects, such as collaborative efforts initiated for the purpose of formulating legal reforms. An example in this regard would be the work currently undertaken by the Southeast Europe unit.