On April 10-12, 2024, 23 SCCL members visited Bonn to participate in the Stockholm-Bonn Law Symposium 2024. On the Bonn side, the event was organised and chaired by Professor Birke Häcker, Director of the Institute for International and Comparative Private Law. On the Stockholm side, the management was in the hands of SCCL’s director, Professor Göran Millqvist, and SCCL’s chairman of the board, Dr. h.c. André Andersson.

On 11 April 2024, Professor Häcker opened with a presentation on the theme “Law as a Science? Comparative Reflections of Classrooms, Codes and Cases”, which sparked a lively debate among the participants. The following sessions were devoted to more specific legal issues and were culturally complemented by a short guided tour through the centre of Bonn and a library tour of early printed books in the Bonn University and State Library (ULB).

On 12 April, the main academic exchange took place in an extended circle of participants in the impressive setting of the Rheinhotel Dreesen in Bad Godesberg. During this part of the symposium, the Stockholm group was joined by twelve legal scholars from the University of Bonn whose academic interests coincide or overlap with the areas in which SCCL members work. Two topics were addressed and discussed at a roundtable discussion in the afternoon.

The first topic focused on the challenges posed by the EU’s planned Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive and already existing national equivalents (e.g. the German so-called “Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz”). The issues and problems raised by this legislation were explored in presentations by Dr Jessica Östberg, Dr Kelly Chen and Dr Stina Bratt (all SCCL) and the subsequent commentary by Professor Alexander Scheuch (Bonn). They ranged from the creation of a “level playing field” at EU level, via the specificities of national systems for potential compensation claims and the relationship with administrative fines for relevant infringements, to the issue of the possibility of insuring compliance risks.

The second topic of discussion concerned different national approaches to property law and the principles of attachment. The presentation, titled “Possession and the Watch in the Centre Car Console,” focused on a Supreme Court case involving the seizure and attachment of a valuable Rolex watch found in the car of a debtor who claimed it did not belong to him but to his partner. After a comment by Professor Moritz Brinkmann (Bonn), the audience concluded that, at least in the area of attachment, the differences between Swedish property law, with its explicitly “functional” approach and the more conceptual approach of German property law, are not at all as great as one might have expected or as is usually assumed in the literature.

The day ended with a gathering and dinner overlooking the Rhine River, and the participants of the symposium had plenty of opportunities to meet and discuss topics of common interest in an informal setting. The visit and the joint symposium thus laid a fertile ground for further academic and friendly ties between Bonn and Stockholm.

On April 10-12, 2024, 23 SCCL members visited Bonn to participate in the Stockholm-Bonn Law Symposium 2024. On the Bonn side, the event was organised and chaired by Professor Birke Häcker, Director of the Institute for International and Comparative Private Law. On the Stockholm side, the management was in the hands of SCCL’s director, Professor Göran Millqvist, and SCCL’s chairman of the board, Dr. h.c. André Andersson.

On 11 April 2024, Professor Häcker opened with a presentation on the theme “Law as a Science? Comparative Reflections of Classrooms, Codes and Cases”, which sparked a lively debate among the participants. The following sessions were devoted to more specific legal issues and were culturally complemented by a short guided tour through the centre of Bonn and a library tour of early printed books in the Bonn University and State Library (ULB).

On 12 April, the main academic exchange took place in an extended circle of participants in the impressive setting of the Rheinhotel Dreesen in Bad Godesberg. During this part of the symposium, the Stockholm group was joined by twelve legal scholars from the University of Bonn whose academic interests coincide or overlap with the areas in which SCCL members work. Two topics were addressed and discussed at a roundtable discussion in the afternoon.

The first topic focused on the challenges posed by the EU’s planned Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive and already existing national equivalents (e.g. the German so-called “Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz”). The issues and problems raised by this legislation were explored in presentations by Dr Jessica Östberg, Dr Kelly Chen and Dr Stina Bratt (all SCCL) and the subsequent commentary by Professor Alexander Scheuch (Bonn). They ranged from the creation of a “level playing field” at EU level, via the specificities of national systems for potential compensation claims and the relationship with administrative fines for relevant infringements, to the issue of the possibility of insuring compliance risks.

The second topic of discussion concerned different national approaches to property law and the principles of attachment. The presentation, titled “Possession and the Watch in the Centre Car Console,” focused on a Supreme Court case involving the seizure and attachment of a valuable Rolex watch found in the car of a debtor who claimed it did not belong to him but to his partner. After a comment by Professor Moritz Brinkmann (Bonn), the audience concluded that, at least in the area of attachment, the differences between Swedish property law, with its explicitly “functional” approach and the more conceptual approach of German property law, are not at all as great as one might have expected or as is usually assumed in the literature.

The day ended with a gathering and dinner overlooking the Rhine River, and the participants of the symposium had plenty of opportunities to meet and discuss topics of common interest in an informal setting. The visit and the joint symposium thus laid a fertile ground for further academic and friendly ties between Bonn and Stockholm.

On April 10-12, 2024, 23 SCCL members visited Bonn to participate in the Stockholm-Bonn Law Symposium 2024. On the Bonn side, the event was organised and chaired by Professor Birke Häcker, Director of the Institute for International and Comparative Private Law. On the Stockholm side, the management was in the hands of SCCL’s director, Professor Göran Millqvist, and SCCL’s chairman of the board, Dr. h.c. André Andersson.

On 11 April 2024, Professor Häcker opened with a presentation on the theme “Law as a Science? Comparative Reflections of Classrooms, Codes and Cases”, which sparked a lively debate among the participants. The following sessions were devoted to more specific legal issues and were culturally complemented by a short guided tour through the centre of Bonn and a library tour of early printed books in the Bonn University and State Library (ULB).

On 12 April, the main academic exchange took place in an extended circle of participants in the impressive setting of the Rheinhotel Dreesen in Bad Godesberg. During this part of the symposium, the Stockholm group was joined by twelve legal scholars from the University of Bonn whose academic interests coincide or overlap with the areas in which SCCL members work. Two topics were addressed and discussed at a roundtable discussion in the afternoon.

The first topic focused on the challenges posed by the EU’s planned Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive and already existing national equivalents (e.g. the German so-called “Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz”). The issues and problems raised by this legislation were explored in presentations by Dr Jessica Östberg, Dr Kelly Chen and Dr Stina Bratt (all SCCL) and the subsequent commentary by Professor Alexander Scheuch (Bonn). They ranged from the creation of a “level playing field” at EU level, via the specificities of national systems for potential compensation claims and the relationship with administrative fines for relevant infringements, to the issue of the possibility of insuring compliance risks.

The second topic of discussion concerned different national approaches to property law and the principles of attachment. The presentation, titled “Possession and the Watch in the Centre Car Console,” focused on a Supreme Court case involving the seizure and attachment of a valuable Rolex watch found in the car of a debtor who claimed it did not belong to him but to his partner. After a comment by Professor Moritz Brinkmann (Bonn), the audience concluded that, at least in the area of attachment, the differences between Swedish property law, with its explicitly “functional” approach and the more conceptual approach of German property law, are not at all as great as one might have expected or as is usually assumed in the literature.

The day ended with a gathering and dinner overlooking the Rhine River, and the participants of the symposium had plenty of opportunities to meet and discuss topics of common interest in an informal setting. The visit and the joint symposium thus laid a fertile ground for further academic and friendly ties between Bonn and Stockholm.