Allowing all people to live in dignity while at the same time protecting our natural environment is one of the globe’s greatest challenges. This aim is expressed in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals set out in the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda. The law stands as an important vehicle for their implementation. In cooperation with Veronica Ruiz Abou-Nigm and Hans van Loon, Institute Director Ralf Michaels has launched a research project that examines the role of private international law in realizing the UN goals.

Private International Law and the United Nations’ Agenda 2030 Sustainability Goals

News

Latest Thinking: Divorce Law in Saudi Arabia - Evolving Islamic Law without Statal Interference

Video September 24, 2021
Can Islamic law develop without state interference? Analysing change in Islamic law can help us understand social and political developments in the Muslim world. Dominik Krell talks about his research about divorce law in Saudi Arabia.

2020 Activity Report published

The current activity report of the Max Planck Institute for Private Law provides an overview of the various research projects, publications and academic events undertaken at the Institute in 2020.
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Reforming the law on standard form contracts and legal “flight” from German law

September 06, 2021
In her dissertation, Antonia Sommerfeld, a former research assistant at the Max Planck Institute for Private Law, questions the risk of legal flight, which is claimed as a reason for liberalising German law on standard form contracts in business transactions. Her research, which she submitted as her dissertation at the University of Hamburg, was honored with prize funding from the Esche Schümann Commichau Foundation.
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Events

Matthias Veicht (LMU München): Rechtsrezeption in China seit 1900: Die Genese des Kaufrechts aus rechtsvergleichend-historischer Perspektive

Hamburg Lecture Series on Chinese Law
Sep 27, 2021 17:00

Iza Hussin (University of Cambridge): Personal law, personal status, ahwal al-shakhsiyya: a history of translations

Afternoon Talk on Islamic Law
Sep 30, 2021 16:00
online

Consumer Financial Services and Inequality

Transatlantic Seminar: Consumer Law, Technology and Inequality
Nov 10, 2021
online

Sports associations and human rights – the role of Corporate Social Responsibility and athlete organizations

Hamburg Forum on Sports Law
Nov 22, 2021 17:00 - 20:00
All events

The Institute

About Us

From the European Single Market to the global interweaving of multi-national businesses or financial firms to our increasingly international everyday lives, the world around us is steadily converging. At the same time, our laws are encountering the limits of their application. The Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law embraces the task of critically studying the social, economic and legal challenges of globalisation.
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Library profile and holdings

The Institute library is Europe’s largest library specialising in foreign and international private law and is recognised worldwide for its scope and services. It has a collection of specialist literature from more than 200 countries around the world. The library has a particular focus on acquiring literature from countries that are not easily accessible, such that these can be gathered and made available at one location.
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New Releases

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Philipp Scholz, Haftungsbegründende und haftungsausfüllende Kausalität im Zivil- und Zivilprozessrecht, Juristische Schulung 2021, 914–917.
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DOI
Antonia Sommerfeld, AGB-Reform und Rechtsflucht. Bedeutung der Rechtsflucht für die AGB-Reformdebatte im unternehmerischen Rechtsverkehr (Studien zum ausländischen und internationalen Privatrecht, 473), Universität Hamburg 2020/21, Tübingen 2021, PhD Thesis, XXX + 463 pp.
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Klaus J. Hopt, Patrick C. Leyens, The structure of the board of directors: boards and governance strategies in the US, the UK and Germany, in: Afra Afsharipour, Martin Gelter (eds.), Comparative Corporate Governance, Elgar, Cheltenham 2021, 116–143.
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Katolickiego Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego Jana Pawła II (ed.), Professor Reinhard Zimmermann, Doktor Honoris Causa, Katolickiego Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego Jana Pawła II, Lublin 2021, 98 pp.

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Philipp Scholz, §§ 58 - 62 WpHG (Organisationspflichten von Datenbereitstellungsdiensten), in: Christoph Seibt, Petra Buck-Heeb, Rafael Harnos (eds.), Beck’scher Online-Kommentar (BeckOK) zum Wertpapierhandelsrecht, 1. ed., C.H. Beck, München 2021.
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Ulrich Magnus, Grünes Gold – Kaufverträge über brasilianische Edelholzbäume, Internationales Handelsrecht 2021, 133–144.
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Jürgen Samtleben, Ein karibisches IPR-Modell – das dominikanische Gesetz von 2014, Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts 2021, 484–490.
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Stefan Korch, Anmerkung zu BAG, April 27, 2021 – 2 AZR 342/20 (Überlassung einer Datenkopie – Bestimmtheit des Klageantrags), Recht Digital 2021, 447–448.
List of Publications

In the Spotlight

A nexus of experimentation, communication, and cutting-edge international research: the Institute library

Researchers from all over the world come to Hamburg to use the unique law library at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law. It has been a source of knowledge and inspiration for countless writings, among them many dissertations and professorship-qualifying monographs. As a reference library, it’s also a place for scholars to meet and discuss their work.
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Corporate purpose from a company law perspective

A business philosophy in search of new legal solutions: Do modern firms need a fundamental purpose that extends beyond pure profit making? Today, many corporate boards in Germany and abroad are embracing the so-called corporate purpose concept. Advocated by leading management scholars, the approach serves to convey the raison d’être and inner drive of an enterprise. A fundamental reorientation of entrepreneurial activity appears to be emerging.
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Decolonial Comparative Law

Consciously or unconsciously, our modern world has been shaped against the backdrop of coloniality, with the result that coloniality serves as a dark flipside of modernity. Identifying and overcoming its implications has become a basic postulate in many academic disciplines. A long-term project of Institute Director Ralf Michaels looks to take similar steps in the field of comparative law.
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Social Media & Videos

Panel discussion "Der Code des Kapitals"

Video May 11, 2021
Panel discussion on the book "Der Code des Kapitals: Wie das Recht Reichtum und Ungleichheit schafft" (Suhrkamp, 2020) on May 11, 2021 with the author Prof. Dr. Katharina Pistor (Edwin B. Parker Professor of Comparative Law and Director of the Center on Global Legal Transformation at Columbia University Law School, New York), Prof. Dr. Hans-Bernd Schäfer (Affiliate Professor at Bucerius Law School in Hamburg) and Institute Director Prof. Dr. Ralf Michaels. The event was held in cooperation with the Hamburg Institute for Social Research [Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung].
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