Centre of Expertise on Japan

Centre of Expertise on Japan

The Centre of Expertise on Japan at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg is one of Europe’s leading contact points for legal questions concerning Japanese civil, commercial and economic law. Its extensive research is informed by a well-established network of scholarly contacts with top universities and other institutions in Japan as well as close personal ties with Japanese colleagues.

Comparative law focusing on Japan is a particularly interesting field because of the broad range of influences that have shaped modern Japanese law in its emergence as one of the world’s major mixed legal systems. Research on Japanese law demands the extensive incorporation of approaches from cultural anthropology, sociology, economics and politics. [more]
Particular attention is devoted to academic exchanges. The Institute benefits from an almost continual presence of guest researchers working in the field of Japanese law. Normally engaged in research stays of considerable length, they receive intensive support and assistance from the Institute’s Centre of Expertise for Japan. [more]
At the Institute numerous monographs and collected editions on Japanese law have been authored which have mapped the key features of this research landscape. Furthermore, the Institute is responsible for the publication of the world’s only Western-language legal periodical about the myriad developments in Japanese law, which follows a consistent approach and offers regular and timely documentation and analysis. [more]
The Institute has individually and cooperatively organized a series of comparative law symposia concerning Japanese law and has subsequently published various conference volumes. [more]
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