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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. more

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. more

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? more

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? more

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. more