Born 13 May 1952 in Hamburg, Legal Studies in Hamburg and Freiburg, Admittance to the Bar (Hamburg, 1981), Doctorate Hamburg (1984), since 1985 Research Fellow at the Institute, Research Stays in Japan (Kyoto, 1988) and the USA (U.C. Berkeley, 1989/90), Research Grants from the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung and the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (Univ. Kyoto, 1990/91), Professorial Dissertation (Habilitation) Hamburg (2004), Professor at the Univ. Hamburg (since 2010), Research Associate, European Corporate Governance Institute, Brussels (since 2003), Guest Professor at the University of Tokyo (2005), Visiting Scholar at the University of Melbourne (2006), Senator of the Max Planck Society (2008-2011), Ombudsperson at the Institute (since 2011).
Vice-president of the German-Japanese Association of Jurists; Member of the Academic Advisory Council of the Interdisciplinary Centre for East Asian Studies (IZO), Goethe Universität, Frankfurt am Main; Member of the Advisory Board of the Australian Network of Japanese Law (ANJeL); Adviser to the Board Director Training Institute of Japan (BDTI); Tokyo; External Examiner, University of London; Member of the Académie Internationale de Droit Comparé; Member of the German Society of International Law; Member of the Association of Comparative Law; Member of the Association of Professors in Civil Law; Member of the European Law Institute; Member of the German Association of Banking Law; Member of the East Asian Law and Society Association, Member of the editorial Board of the The Asian Business Lawyer. Evaluator for the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung, Evaluator for the German Academic Exchange Service.
Awards: Conferral of the 2010 Award of the Stiftung zur Förderung japanisch-deutscher Wissenschafts- und Kulturbeziehungen (JaDe) for exceptional service and performance in the area of academic and cultural exchange between Japan and Deutschland.
Festschrift: Business Law in Japan: Cases and Comments. Intellectual Property, Civil, Commercial and International Private Law. Writings in Honour of Harald Baum, Alphen aan den Rijn 2012 (Kluwer Law International) XXIV, 824 pp.
