On January 23-24, 2015, selected doctoral candidates from WASEDA University (早稲田大学) met with Bucerius academic faculty and local doctoral candidates to present and discuss their scholarship. The two-day undertaking was led by Professor Dr. Anne Röthel and made possible by the generous support of both WASEDA and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
The event provided an opportunity for both international and interdisciplinary exchange: in addition to Professor Hiroyuki Oba and the five Japanese candidates representing the WASEDA Graduate School or Law, two doctoral candidates from Bucerius also gave talks about their research projects. In order to offer insight from a German legal perspective and provide feedback to questions raised by the delegation from Tokyo, Röthel assembled a panel of advisors consisting of Bucerius Professors Florian Faust, Michael Fehling, Karsten Gaede, and Matthias Jacobs.
Topics addressed were broad in scope and ranged from the law of obligations to criminal law and emissions trading legislation. The WASEDA representatives made a lasting impression upon their German peers in demonstrating not only and in-depth understanding of German legal topics, but also an impressive command of the language. The exchange proved especially fruitful with Japanese models offering potential solutions to challenges encountered within the German legal framework and vice versa. In addition to addressing several fundamental questions, dialogue reinforced similarities between the two jurisdictions.
