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Prof. Dr. Matthias Lehmann

Institute for International Private and Comparative Law, University of Bonn

Curriculum Vitae

From 1991 to 1996, Prof. Dr. Matthias Lehmann studied Law at the University of Jena. He subsequently participated in an additional postgraduate course on the subject “Droit des relations économiques internationales” from 1997 to 1998 at the Universität Panthéon-Assas (Paris II). Until 2002, Prof. Dr. Matthias Lehmann was a trainee lawyer at the Superior Court of Justice in Berlin where he also completed his second state examination. In the same year, he was also awarded his doctorate from the University of Jena with a dissertation on the subject “Die Schiedsfähigkeit wirtschaftsrechtlicher Streitigkeiten als transnationales Rechtsprinzip”. In 2008, he earned his habilitation at the University of Bayreuth with his work “Vom Wertpapier zum Finanzinstrument”. A second doctorate on the subject “From Conflict of Laws to Global Justice”, awarded from Columbia University, followed in 2011. From 2009 to 2014, Prof. Dr. Matthias Lehmann was Chair of German and European Private Law, Commercial and Business Law, European Law, and Private International and Comparative Law as well as Director of the Institute of Economic Law at the University of Halle-Wittenberg. Furthermore, he has had various guest professorships and fellowships both in Europe and the United States, including at the Columbia Law School, Université Montesquieu, Universidad Pablo de Olavide in Sevilla, and Université Fribourg. Since October 2014 Prof. Dr. Matthias Lehmann is Director of the Institute for International Private and Comparative Law at the University of Bonn.

Prof. Dr. Matthias Lehmann was Fellow at the Käte Hamburger Center “Law as Culture” from October 2018 to March 2019 as well as from October 2019 to March 2020.

Research Project

"Culture, Law, and the Economy:
Explaining Diversity in Business Regulations and Perspectives for their Coexistence"

Mainstream economic theory suggests there should be only one method of regulating the economy. This, however, contrasts with the various models one can observe functioning across the globe. This project seeks to attribute this diversity to differences in culture as expressed through legal institutions, i.e. legal rules, concepts, and practices. By using examples from several jurisdictions, it will show that legal institutions existing in major capitalist economies are based on diverging assumptions, customs, and habits. It will also demonstrate how these legal institutions react upon the culture of the countries adopting them, giving each legal system its distinct ‘flavor’.

Diverging cultures and regulations across states have ramifications for the governance of the global economy. Differing attitudes clash when it comes to the worldwide regulation of areas which are of fundamental importance to mankind, such as trade, finance, intellectual property, human rights, and environmental protection. This project will analyze this process and the obstacles that cultural divergence poses to legal harmonization, cooperation, and coordination. It will also explore whether and how different cultures have merged into one global business law culture, and, if so, identify the traits characteristic of this global culture and the areas in which key differences remain as well as offer  reasons for these developments.

Publications (selected)

Monographs

  • Die Schiedsfähigkeit wirtschaftsrechtlicher Streitigkeiten als transnationales Rechtsprinzip, Dissertation Jena 2002, Baden-Baden 2003. 
  • Zitierfibel für Juristen (together with B. Sharon Byrd), Munich/Vienna 2006. (2016: 2. Vol.).
  • Finanzinstrumente. Vom Wertpapier- und Sachenrecht zum Recht der unkörperlichen Vermögensgegenstände, Habilitation, Jus-Privatum No. 145, Tübingen 2009.
  • Grundriss des Bank- und Kapitalmarktrechts, Heidelberg 2016.

Editorships

  • Hedgefonds und Private Equity – Fluch oder Segen? (together with Stefan Leible), conference report, Jena 2008 (discussed by Jan Lieder, ZBB 2010, pp. 182-184).
  • Unkörperliche Güter im Zivilrecht (together with Stefan Leible and Herbert Zech), conference report, Tübingen 2011 (discussed by Christoph-Eric Mecke, Ufita 2012, pp. 301-304).
  • Zeitschrift für Gemeinschaftsprivatrecht (GPR).
  • Zeitschrift für das gesamte Genossenschaftswesen (ZfgG).
  • Schriften zum Transnationalen Wirtschaftsrecht, Universitätsverlag Halle-Wittenberg.
  • Studien zum Bank- und Kapitalmarktrecht, Nomos.
  • European Contract Law and German Law (together with Stefan Leible), Den Haag 2014.
  • Common European Sales Law Meets Reality, Munich 2014 (discussed by Evelin Vanthorre/Bert Kersbilck, (2016), 53 Common Market Law Review, pp. 580-582).
  • Grenzüberschreitende Finanzdienstleistungen – Das Internationale Finanzmarkt-, Privat- und Zivilprozessrecht Deutschlands, Österreichs, der Schweiz und Liechtensteins (together with Dirk Zetzsche), Tübingen 2018.
  • International and European Business Law, comment (four to eight volumes), editorship together with Reiner Schulze.
  • International Financial Services Law (together with Christoph Kumpan), in: Schulze/Lehmann, International and European Business Law.