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In German legal literature, commentaries on codifications or individual statutes are a core publication format. Characterized by a scholarly approach that also looks closely at legal practice, commentaries are seen as a characteristically German phenomenon. Until now there has been no comparative research on the significance of legal commentaries in other jurisdictions. more

German constitutional law, European law, and public international law, all pose requirements for the regulation of early marriage. Members of the Max Planck Institute for Private Law analyze these requirements in six papers, which are now freely available on SSRN. These preprint papers will also appear in a volume on “The Law of Early Marriage” ["Die Frühehe im Recht"] that will be published early next year, under the editorship of Nadjma Yassari and Ralf Michaels, Director at the Institute. more

Dr. Mateusz Grochowski, LL.M. (Yale), Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, has received an OPUS scholarship from the National Science Center (NCN) of Poland in connection with his research project on the sources of contract law in digital markets. The aim of the project is to analyse the potential for extra-state regulation through digital platforms. more

Roughly six months after the enactment of the new Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, Knut Benjamin Pißler, Head of the Centre of Expertise on China and Korea at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, has prepared the first German-language translation of the legislation. more

Staff members and guests of the Institute are continuing to work within the limited on-site operation framework. There continues to be limited access to the Institute. more

Prof. Dr. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Klaus J. Hopt, MCJ (NYU) stands as one of the most acclaimed and internationally influential German legal scholars of our era. From 1995 until 2008 he was Director at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law. more

Despite the immense impact that succession law has on the lives of many individuals, it is one of the less researched foundational fields of private law. Institute Director Reinhard Zimmermann, together with Kenneth Reid from the Edinburgh Law School and Marius de Waal from the Stellenbosch University, is currently in the process of analysing the subject of succession law from historical and comparative perspectives. more