Law

While damages are still primarily attributed a compensatory function in German law, prevention and effective law enforcement are also increasingly recognised as legitimate purposes of tort law in more and more areas. This volume retraces these developments and looks to the future.

To balance the competing interests of creditors and debtors and to reduce potential hardship caused by the general statute of limitations for civil claims in German law (§§ 195, 199 German Civil Code), the courts have introduced a reasonableness test. The statute of limitations only begins if the creditor can reasonably be expected to sue the debtor to enforce his or her claim. In this thesis, the author examines and systemizes the intricate case law that has developed around this notion of reasonableness in the law of limitations.

This volume documents the presentations given at the 2nd German-Japanese Colloquium on Administrative Law 2025. It provides comparative legal insights into administrative, governmental, and judicial procedures in both countries. The contributions address both fundamental legal issues and current challenges.

The collation of lifetime gifts, the German hotchpot rule, is intended to ensure equal treatment in succession law. Doctrinally, it is linked to the idea of portions (§ 1624 of the German Civil Code). From a historical and comparative perspective, it becomes clear that this concept and the doctrine have reached their limits and require reform.