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.

Usufruct is a legal instrument claiming a long history. In addition to its application in the context of land and adjoining structures, it has come to play a particularly important role in estate planning as regards the transfer of businesses or partnerships upon succession.

Since 1996 the ZJapanR/J.Japan.L. has been a central Western-language forum for academic exchange on Japanese law. With the release of Issue No. 50, Harald Baum, former head of the Centre of Expertise on Japan at the MPI for Private Law and founder of the Journal of Japanese Law, hands over editorial direction to his successor at the Institute, Ruth Effinowicz.

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.

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.

Globalisation, the European Single Market and migration unmistakeably shape the legal relations between individuals and businesses in today’s Europe. With the increasing international interdependence of private and professional matters, the number of cross-border legal disputes heard by German judges is also growing. The frequent application of foreign law by German judges is indeed an occurrence which those outside legal circles are often unaware of. Yet where do judges secure the necessary knowledge about the 200 different legal systems found around the world?

In 2017, the Law to Combat Child Marriage came into force in Germany, preventing minors in Germany from entering into a marriage and rendering without effect marriages concluded by minors abroad. This law is now being subject to constitutional scrutiny. A team of academics led by Nadjma Yassari and Ralf Michaels has authored a comparative assessment for the Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfG) that examines the phenomenon of early marriage in the context of various legal systems and cultures.

The coronavirus affects not only the human organism – it also radically impacts economic processes. The COVID-19 crisis, described as a “natural disaster in slow motion”, has affected all areas of economic life and therefore poses major challenges in a number of legal areas. In the realm of contract law, there is an ongoing and intense dispute as to whether commercial tenants are entitled to make reduced payments to their landlords as a result of foregone revenue.