Yearbook 2009

Sweden has changed considerably since the establishment of the political concept of „folkhemmet“ („people’s home“) in the 1930s. A research project at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Social Law to understand the law of this particular version of a welfare state and to compare it with German experiences required studies over an extensive period of time. These were affected by way of continual involvement in other Institute projects and via independent analyses of important aspects of the change, such as the pension reform of 2000. more

The Handbook of European Private Law structures, edited by the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, structures the various aspects of European private law in light of their historical and comparative law dimensions as well as of the harmonization of European law. The Handbook provides both academics and practitioners with a concise and convenient account of the present state of European private law, and forms an important basis for its consistent development in the future. more

The research project “The Exercise of International Public Authority“ analyzes the public authority exercised by international institutions. It is based on the recognition that forms of international or global governance condition, supervene or substitute domestic processes and thus impact the possibilities of individual and collective self-determination. The project attempts to establish a coherent framework for the legal analysis of global governance phenomena on the basis of a normative concept of public authority. more

To introduce competition policies, developing countries can act on the national or supranational level. A trend toward supranational competition law systems can be witnessed in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean region. In many instances, developing countries follow the European example. However, the particular trade and integration paradigm of the European model cannot provide an adequate response to the manifold challenges in developing countries. Rather, one has to take account of the socio-economic, political and cultural specificities of the particular region. more

The expansion of protection for intellectual property rights on the international level is increasingly met with criticism. As a reaction, it is considered to impose mandatory limits to the scope and contents of protection. As the international Conventions until now are based on the principle of minimum rights, such an approach is venturing into largely unchartered territory, raising a number of unsettled issues. more

Profit shifting by means of systematic debt financing has been in the public focus for many years. A research project at the Max-Planck-Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law analyses the basic concepts to prevent excessive debt financing including recent developments in selected countries. The main objective is to support the legislative body in improving the existing regime respectively to encourage a full reconception. more

Tax reform considerations in the United Kingdom and the United States have renewed the debate on the optimal taxation of foreign business income. The standard theory states that dividends paid by foreign affiliates should be taxed according to the tax credit system. However, recent empirical research has challenged the main assumption of this theory and suggested the introduction of the tax exemption system. In models accounting for these new findings it can be shown, though, that the tax credit system dominates the exemption system in welfare terms. more

The historical region of South Eastern Europe in the post-ottoman period was characterized by an amalgam of old and new law, of traditional, transformed, and transferred normativity. All these normative strata overlapped in a complex way. At the same time, they were embedded in the process of national state-building, thereby facing its concomitant problems of legitimacy. The research project at the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History aims at reconstructing this intricate legal-historical realm of change. more