Towards a German Supply Chain Act? Conflict of Laws and Comparative Law Considerations; Lecture at MPI Hamburg, 1 September 2020

We have covered human rights litigation here before, in particular the case of the Pakistani textile workers against German textile retail chain Kik decided by the Court of Appeals (Oberlandesgericht) Hamm. So I thought I ought to alert readers to a lecture on a development that may impact the future development of the field in Germany, namely the planned Supply Chain Act (Lieferkettengesetz). Continue reading

75th Anniversary of the Reinstatement of the Frankfurt Courts

2020 does not only mark 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, but also the beginning of the efforts to rebuild Germany’s institutions. Today is the 75th anniversary of the reopening of the District Court (Landgericht) Frankfurt. General Eisenhower’s Proclamation No. 1 of 19 March 1945 had closed down all German courts until further notcie. The order of the US Military Government to re-open the Frankfurt district court came on 24 and August 1945. Continue reading

Art Law After Brexit: EU Commission Guidance on Cultural Goods

Under the headline “Getting ready for the end of the transition period”, the European Commission has published guidance for stakeholders for a variety of sectors, from air transport to waste shipments. For the art business, there is a note on the import and export of cultural goods dated 17 August 2020. Continue reading

The Art of Anonymous Case-Reporting: Who is Dr O?

I have written about the time-honoured German tradition of anonymous case reporting, and some rather absurd results thereof, on several occasions (see here, for example). In a recent order, the Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof) has taken that practice to a completely new level of meaninglessness.

The case involved one of Germany’s household food brands – I am not yet giving away which one – and dealt with the information that had to be displayed on the packaging of a popular cereal. As it is customary for disputes of this nature, the judgment included a picture of the product in question.
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