In addition to a wide array of comparative law projects, the Institute has also since its inception placed a special weight on projects with a regional emphasis. In this vein, the Institute routinely focuses upon legal systems that are in a state of transformation and which can consequently benefit from the Institute’s scholastic input and also on countries experiencing a particularly dynamic development or having considerable economic significance.

 

Regional Research Emphasis on East Asia: China, Korea, Japan

The Institute has for many years given special attention to East Asia and, in the meantime, the countries standing in focus have expanded to include Korea alongside China and Japan. The main object of research interest lies in the areas of commercial law, economic law and capital market law; however, the general development of civil law in the People’s Republic of China is also being documented and being made accessible through the translation of significant texts into German. Furthermore, the overall academic dialog is taking on additional dimensions as is illustrated by a translation and explanatory commentary on the private international law of the Republic of Korea and by an Institute co-sponsored German-Japanese conference on the economic analysis of private international law. With the founding of the „European China Law Studies Association”, participation in the LL.M. „Asian-European Business Transactions“ program of studies and its participation in the Hamburg Lecture Series on Chinese Law, the Institute is contributing significantly to the creation of institutionalised structures promoting scholarly exchange and cooperation with East Asia. The academic exchange which occurs at conferences is further supplemented through invitations extended to guest scholars to undertake a research stay under the auspices of the Institute scholarship program. Through these research visits it becomes apparent that Japanese as well as Chinese and Korean scholars have a keen interest in studying German and European legal experiences, e.g. the development of contract law and competition law, to the extent that this knowledge can later be brought to bear upon legal reform in their own countries.

Establishing individual research units for both Japan (Baum) and China/Korea (Pißler) – a combination unique in Germany – has for many years assured uninterrupted attention on these legal systems of increasing importance. Especially with regards to comparative law in respect of Japan, the Institute has played an increasingly significant role within Germany. Among other efforts, the Institute’s East Asian regional units working in cooperation with the German-Japanese Jurists’ Association and, respectively, the German-Chinese Jurists’ Association, are responsible for the publication of the only two ongoing German legal periodicals dedicated to the law of these regions: for Japan the “Zeitschrift für Japanisches Recht/Journal of Japanese Law” and for China the “Zeitschrift für Chinesisches Recht”.

Regional Research Emphasis: The Law of Islamic Countries, particularly Afghanistan and Iran

The research focus on Islamic legal systems comprises two main elements: firstly, the law in Iran and, secondly, the legal developments ongoing in Afghanistan. In terms of legal areas, an emphasis is placed on family law.

The Institute has for a number of years been an active participant in the reformation and construction of legal institutions in Afghanistan, which after 25 years of war stands before a new beginning: governmental structures, administrative bodies, the judiciary, and institutions of higher education must be rebuilt from the ground up. Adoption of the new Afghan constitution provided the occasion for a cooperative effort of the Hamburg Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law and the Heidelberg Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Public Law in which the institutes first organised two workshops on “Islamic and Constitutional Law in Afghanistan” and then hosted two conferences, in Heidelberg and Hamburg respectively, titled “The Shari’a in the Afghan Constitution and Its Implication for the Legal Order.” Therein, the Heidelberg institute explored the construction of legal institutions and the judiciary while the Hamburg institute examined the civil law consequences of the Shari’a being anchored into the Afghan constitution. The results of this conference have since been published under the title “The Shari'a in the Afghan Constitution - Implications for Private Law.”
 
In connection with these conferences, the Institute commenced a project addressing the overhaul of Afghan family law, the endeavour being financed by Germany’s Auswärtiges Amt (Federal Foreign Office). 2004/2005 saw a field research phase in which the current legal state of family law in Afghanistan was documented. A second phase in 2005 served for the authoring of a comparative law study on family law; in addition to the Institute research fellow responsible for Islamic law, the examination was undertaken by researchers from the University of Göttingen, the London University and the International Islamic University of Malaysia.
In a third project phase a workshop on family law was conducted in Afghanistan by a specially trained team – including Institute members – which served to support Afghan jurists, i.e. university professors, judges, lawyers and civil servants. Based upon the materials utilized during the workshop and the discussions which took place therein, a textbook on Afghan family law has been produced which will be available for use in Afghanistan.

Regional Research Emphasis: Southeast Europe
 
The social and political evolution of this complicated region and its corresponding legal development are of major importance for the political future of Europe. The Institute has for some time been engaged in cooperative efforts with countries in Southeast Europe, projects aiming to harmonise the national laws of entering states with the acquis communautaire of the European Union. Subsequent to two cooperative projects with Bulgaria, one dedicated to the codification of Bulgarian international private law and procedural law and the other to the formulation of a Bulgarian commercial register, the reform of Romanian corporate law currently finds itself at the top of the agenda. Among additional projects, the Institute is also particularly engaged with regards to the nations comprising the former Yugoslavia. Thereunder, Serbia and Montenegro are in the greatest need of modernised legislation. In Serbia the Institute has commenced a close collaboration with not only the legal faculties and legal associations but also with the Ministry of International Economic Relations which has been given a great extent of responsibility for civil law reform. The advisory role of the Institute ranges from the field of mortgage law to investment fund legislation among other topics.

Regional Emphasis: Civil and Economic Law in Russia and the Post-Soviet Region (CIS-States)

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, not only the geopolitical map in Eastern Europe, but also in the Caucasus and Central Asia was redrawn. Since then the successor states of the Soviet Union have been developing their own national legal systems which are oriented towards the demands of the modern market economy. The legal transformation process can be illustrated not only by the recodified civil law, but also by recently adopted laws of many successor states of the Soviet Union. This process has led to new legal systems that are in the spotlight of comparative law. The rapid change of the political system and the adherent changes of the legal framework allow unique insights into the functioning of law and its interaction with society. Furthermore, in the former Soviet republics there is an interest to adopt the European and in particular the German law. The reason is that the affiliation of these states to the continental law system was not completely abolished during socialism. Moreover, even before World War I the reception of German law had taken place and it influences the current civil law of Russia and other CIS countries.

The Institute is analysing the development of civil and economic law in Russia and other CIS-States and is taking an active role in the academic dialogue ongoing in these countries. In this vein, multiple conferences have been sponsored and cooperative efforts with researchers from the CIS-States are being undertaken in selected areas. Since Spring 2007 the Institute has hosted an ongoing discussion series where legal, political and social developments in the post-Soviet region are discussed, the GUS-Runde. In 2010, with the support of the Volkswagen Foundation, the Institute initiated a scholarship program for young academics hailing from the Caucasus and Central Asia. Under the program, participating scholars research from a comparative perspective a civil or economic law topic (of their choosing) as it relates to their home country.

Regional Research Emphases:

Harmonisation of European Private and Economic Law - On the Road to a European Jurisprudence

Individual Research Projects in the Fields of European Private and Economic Law

Comparative Law - Legal History - Legal Doctrine

• Last update: 30 Jun. 2011
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