News

Elke Heinrich-Pendl awarded post-doctoral degree from Bucerius Law School
Elke Heinrich-Pendl, senior research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, received her post-doctoral degree (“Habilitation”) from Bucerius Law School on 2 March 2023. The venia legendi she was awarded covers the fields of private law, company law, banking law, and comparative law.

Online condolence book for Jürgen Basedow (1949-2023)
Jürgen Basedow, our long-time director, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on 6 April 2023. He was director at the Institute from 1997 to 2017 and remained present at the Institute after his retirement. We are dismayed and speechless. Our thoughts are with his wife and family.
In the last days we have received messages of condolence sent from all over the world. In order to bring them together, we have created an online condolence book.

Reinhard Zimmermann awarded the Antonio Feltrinelli Prize
Reinhard Zimmermann, Director Emeritus at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law has been awarded the Antonio Feltrinelli Prize. The prize is considered Italy’s most important tribute for outstanding achievement in the areas of scholarship and culture and is bestowed annually by the Italian National Academy (the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei) to Italian and foreign scholars and artists.

New Releases

Contribution to a Collected edition
Ruth Effinowicz, 75 Jahre unveränderte japanische Verfassung. Herausforderungen für die Auslegung des Friedensartikels, in: Keiichi Aizawa, Japanisches Kulturinstitut Köln (eds.), Gemeinsame Herausforderungen, Iudicium, München 2023, 23–46.
Collected Edition
Franz Albert Bauer, Ben Gerrit Köhler (eds.), Proportionality in Private Law (Studien zum ausländischen und internationalen Privatrecht, 500) 2023, XIII + 219 pp.
Contribution to a Collected edition
Franz Albert Bauer, Proportionality in Private Law: An Analytical Framework, in: Franz Albert Bauer, Ben Gerrit Köhler (eds.), Proportionality in Private Law (Studien zum ausländischen und internationalen Privatrecht, 500), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2023, 15–32.
Contribution to a Collected edition
Ben Gerrit Köhler, Proportionality in Private Law: A Primer, in: Franz Albert Bauer, Ben Gerrit Köhler (eds.), Proportionality in Private Law (Studien zum ausländischen und internationalen Privatrecht, 500), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2023, 3–14.
Thesis - PhD
Luca Wimmer, Motivirrtum bei Schenkung und letztwilliger Verfügung. Eine kritische, historisch-vergleichende Untersuchung des deutschen, französischen und österreichischen Rechts (Studien zum ausländischen und internationalen Privatrecht, 504), Universität Freiburg 2022/23, Tübingen 2023, PhD Thesis, XXIII + 266 pp.
Working Paper
Mateusz Grochowski, From Contract Law to Online Speech Governance, 2023, https://verfassungsblog.de/contract-speech/, 05/18/2023.

Events

Holger Spamann (Harvard Law School): Law Matters – Less Than We Thought. Or: Do Judges Actually Follow Conflict of Law Directives?

Current Research in Private International Law
Jun 6, 2023 11:00 AM (Local Time Germany)
online

Innovation and Private Law

Annual Meeting of the Alumni Association of the Hamburg Max Planck Institute
Jun 9, 2023 02:30 PM - 05:30 PM (Local Time Germany)
Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law

Dr. LI Yan (Seoul National University): Focusing on the Rules on International Jurisdiction to Adjudicate Under the ‘Korean Private International Law Act 2022'

Hamburg Lecture Series on Korean Law
Jun 13, 2023 05:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law

Das Gutachten zum ausländischen Recht im Prozess des 21. Jahrhunderts

Conference
Jun 16, 2023 - Jun 17, 2023
Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law

Decolonial Comparative Law Summer School 2023

Jul 4, 2023 - Jul 8, 2023
Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law

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.

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.

In the Spotlight

Legal pathways in a dynamic environment. Exploring the Chinese Civil Code through comparative analysis
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.

Commentary on Supply Chain Act. Orientation for a demanding interdisciplinary topic
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.

Institute director Reinhard Zimmermann lauded at symposium honouring transition to emeritus status
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.

Social Media

Podcast

How does Western thinking preside over the world’s laws?
Europe and the U.S. continue to set the standards against which the rest of the world is measured. This is true also when it comes to how the law is conceived. Western structures are in some regards so thoroughly internalized that it can be hard to recognize them – which makes comparative law that much more valuable. Just how the discipline of comparative law can counter colonial ideas and allow for more legal diversity is explained in the podcast by Institute Director Ralf Michaels. (in German)

Video

The Reformation of Greek-Orthodox Family Law: The Example of Jordan
Dörthe Engelcke explains at Latest Thinking why reforming the family laws of Christian communities in Middle Eastern countries is difficult.
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