Private Law Gazette 2/2022 - China’s economic and political stature demands a scholarly response that can surmount linguistic as well as cultural barriers. Much is spoken nowadays of a growing need for competence on China. The Institute can look back all the while on a long scholarly tradition of covering Chinese civil law. The existence of a dedicated China desk goes back to Berlin, to what was then the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Comparative and International Private Law. Legal scholar and sinologist Knut Benjamin Pißler has been running its counterpart at the MPI since 2002. Under Pißler, what used to be the China desk has expanded into the Centre of Expertise on China and Korea.

Private Law Gazette 2/2022 – Germany is the world's third-largest import nation. The Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (LkSG), adopted by the German Bundestag on 11 July 2021, was preceded by long and difficult debates. For some, the law is a milestone in the fight against exploitation and environmental destruction in developing countries. For others, the legislation creates unreasonable burdens and competitive disadvantages for local companies. In addition, there are many unresolved legal issues, making factual orientation all the more important.

Former students of Reinhard Zimmermann, his colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, and others who accompanied him on his journey at one time or another came together on 14 October 2022 to join in celebrating the internationally renowned legal scholar and long-time director at the Institute. They showered him with standing ovations.