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.

Corporate purpose from a company law perspective: A business philosophy in search of new legal solutions

News

Coronavirus: Protective Measures Update

May 31, 2021
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.
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A conversation with Institute scholarship recipient Lígia Espolaor Veronese

June 15, 2021
Lígia Espolaor Veronese was a guest research scholar at the Institute from March to June 2021, during which time she completed research on her doctoral project being undertaken at the University of São Paulo. Her dissertation explores contract law issues in relation to BRICS nations. Ms Veronese is an expert on Brazilian and international arbitration and has been a practising attorney for a number of years.
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EU Private Law

June 10, 2021
The body of private law rules set out in EU legislation has grown significantly over the last decades and it continues to expand in scope. On account of the fragmentary structure of EU law, it is usually only specific areas that are the object of legal study, such as EU labour law, EU company law or EU consumer law.
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Events

Guest lecture Caterina Bori (University of Bologna): An elusive concept: Ibn Taymiyya’s vision of siyāsa shar‘iyya

Afternoon Talk on Islamic Law
Jun 24, 2021 16:00
online

Annual Meeting "Friends of the Hamburg Max-Planck-Institute for Comparative and International Private Law" 2021

Symposium: Dekolonialität – Herausforderung für die Rechtsvergleichung?
Jun 26, 2021 10:00 - 12:30

The Private Side of Transforming our World – UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and the Role of Private International Law

Conference
Sep 9, 2021 - Sep 11, 2021
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

MPG.PuRe
DOI
Martin Bialluch, Privatrecht oder öffentliches Recht: Zur Rechtsnatur der kapitalmarktrechtlichen Wohlverhaltenspflichten, Juristenzeitung 2021, 547–553.
MPG.PuRe
Reinhard Zimmermann, Interview mit Reinhard Zimmermann / Interv'ju Rajnharda Zimmermanna, Vestnik graždanskogo prava/Bulletin des Zivilrechts 21, 1 (2021), 254–269.
MPG.PuRe
Denise Wiedemann, Länderbericht Mexiko, in: Dieter Henrich, Alexander Bergmann, Murad Ferid, Anatol Dutta, Hans-Georg Ebert (eds.), Internationales Ehe- und Kindschaftsrecht, 241. Lf., Verlag für Standesamtswesen, Frankfurt am Main 2021, 1–89.
MPG.PuRe
Matthias Pendl, Désirée Prantl, Moderation of Contractual Penalties in Arbitration, in: Christian Klausegger, Peter Klein, Florian Kremslehner, Alexander Petsche, Nikolaus Pitkowitz, Irene Welser, Gerold Zeiler (eds.), Austrian Yearbook on International Arbitration 2021, Manz, Wien 2021, 103–125.

MPG.PuRe
DOI
Denise Wiedemann, Legal Progress and Socio-Economic Reflections on Child Marriage in Latin America, International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family 35 (2021)
MPG.PuRe
DOI
Philipp Scholz, Thomas Hoffmann, Die Rechtstatsachenforschung im toten Winkel des DiRUG-Regierungsentwurfs, Die Aktiengesellschaft 2021, 227–229.
MPG.PuRe
Jürgen Basedow, EU Private Law: Anatomy of a Growing Legal Order, Intersentia, Cambridge 2021, cxxvii + 785 pp.
MPG.PuRe
DOI
Jürgen Basedow, European Integration: Quo vadis? A Critical Commentary on the PSPP Judgment of the German Federal Constitutional Court of May 5, 2020, International Journal of Constitutional Law 2021, 1–20.
List of Publications

In the Spotlight

Decolonial Comparative Law

TopThema
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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Women in the field of law - What intrigues our researchers?

March 08, 2021
TopThema
Public welfare obligations of companies, the effects of the digital revolution on private law, forest investments in Latin America: the research projects of female scholars at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law cover a wide range of topics. On the occasion of International Women's Day, eight researchers describe the projects that are particularly close to their hearts.
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Current Institute research on the coronavirus pandemic

TopThema
COVID-19 affected all aspects of life in 2020. Legislation enacted as a result of the pandemic encroaches on the personal lives of all people and poses wholly new challenges to authorities, organizations and commercial enterprises. What does this mean for the legal relationships governed by private law? What answers can international comparative law provide? What role does foundational legal research play in devising new solutions?
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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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