A close community of legal scholars and judges from around the world have long known that the Federal Republic of Germany possesses an impressive and dynamic legal tradition meriting comparative study. Unfortunately, legal sources, statutes, cases and commentaries from Germany were often available only to those with a command of the German language.

Three more recent developments have, however, dramatically increased the international profile of German jurisprudence, thereby creating a broad, international (and therefore English-language) demand for access to German law. First, the end of the Cold War has been accompanied by a considerable interest on the part of emerging East European democracies in the constitutional and legal systems of the established democracies. Germany's unique geographic and historic position within Europe and its particular and continuing experience in reunifying former West Germany with former East Germany have made the Federal Republic's legal tradition the leading model for many new democracies. A second development has been the radical expansion of the global context not only for business and trade, but also for new agendas in communication, environmental protection, education and human rights. The manifold development of international, transnational, supranational and global legal activity, involving old and new actors (states, organizations, associations and individuals) has elevated the importance of comparative law. The third development is the deepening of the authority of the European Union and its institutions as well as the EU's imminent expansion. Germany's relationship to the European Union is considered fundamental to the success of the European project and an understanding of this relationship requires an understanding of Germany's social, political but also legal infrastructure.

In light of the traditional, but also more recent interest in German jurisprudence, it is appropriate not only to open access to developments in German jurisprudence but also to open an international forum in which contemporary German jurisprudence can be discussed and critiqued.

The German Law Journal serves an international audience as the first and only on-line, English-language report on developments in German and European jurisprudence. With regard to both Public Law and Private Law in Germany, as well as European Law, GLJ provides thoughtful, quality reporting while inviting further commentary on and analysis of the issues on which it reports. GLJ's frequent publication schedule permits the most contemporary coverage. GLJ also provides coverage of German and European Legal Culture, including annoncements of conferences and other events of interest, book reviews, and coverage of appointments to the judiciary.

GLJ invites its readers to participate in the debate by submitting articles, commentaries, reviews and links to relevant internet sites. GLJ provides quotation quality publishing, adhering to a numbered-paragraph-system as employed by Courts and other institutions publishing in the internet.

The graphic in the banner across the top of the GLJ web-page shows a detail of Ambrogio Lorenzetti's frescoe Allegory of Good Government (completed between 1338 and 1340), which can be seen in the Palazzo Publico in Siena, Tuscany, Italy. Lorenzetti (ca. 1290-1348) worked most of his life in Siena, where he eventually died of the plague. The upper-right portion of the frescoe (not included in the graphic in the banner) contains allegorical personifications of faith, charity and hope. The upper-left portion of the frescoe contains representations of peace, fortitude and prudence. In the middle, the State is depicted along with the three virtues of good government: magnanimity, temperance and justice.

GLJ Co-Editor Russell A. Miller, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Idaho College of Law, has been a Visiting Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Law, Heidelberg, Germany (2001-2002).
He also served, part-time, as a legal advisor and translator at the German Federal Constitutional Court (2000-2001). Russell came to Germany in 1999 with the Robert Bosch Foundation's Fellowship for Young American Leaders, during which he participated in internships at the German Federal Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Before coming to Germany Russell's legal practice was focused exclusively on the representation of death-sentenced inmates in their appeals. Russell was a legal advisor (Law Clerk) to the Honorable Robert H. Whaley of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington. Russell holds a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in English Literature (Washington State University - 1991), a Juris Doctor and Master of Arts in English Literature (Duke Univeristy -- 1994) and is currently an LL.M. candidate at Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University, Frankfurt, Germany.

Russell A. Miller
Visiting Professor of Law
Washington & Lee University
Associate Professor
University of Idaho College of Law
Moscow, ID 83844-2321
U.S.A.

Email: millerra@wlu.edu

Since July 1, 2004, Professor Peer Zumbansen holds the Canada Research Chair of Transnational and Comparative Corporate Governance at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University, Toronto, Canada. He passed the Habilitation (post-doctoral, full professor qualification) at the University of Frankfurt Law School in April 2004. He studied philosophy and law in Frankfurt, Paris and at Harvard Law School; he obtained a Licence en Droit from the University of Paris X Nanterre in 1991, the Legal State Exam Diploma (J.D./LL.B.) from the University of Frankfurt Law School in 1995, a Ph.D. in Law from the University of Frankfurt and an LL.M. from Harvard Law School in 1998. After passing the Bar in 2000, he researched and taught at the University of Frankfurt, before spending the academic year 2001-2002 as a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy (http://www.iue.it). He held Visiting Professorships at the University of Idaho College of Law and at Osgoode Hall Law School. His current research in private law focuses on Corporate Governance, Comparative Company Law and the implications of national differences on the ‘Constitution of the Firm’. Peer Zumbansen holds the Canada Research Chair in the Transnational and Comparative Law of Corporate Governance at Osgoode Hall Law School. He holds law degrees from the University of Paris X Nanterre, from the University of Frankfurt, and from Harvard Law School. Professor Zumbansen is the founder and director of the CLPE Comparative Research in Law and Political Economy Research Network at Osgoode Hall Law School (www.comparativeresearch.net). He is the co-founder and co-editor in chief of the monthly English-language legal periodical German Law Journal and of the Annual of German & European Law. Recent publications include “Comparative Law’s Coming of Age? Twenty Years after ‘Critical Comparisons’”, 6 German Law Journal 1073-1084 (2005); “Spaces and Places: A Systems Theory Approach to Regulatory Competition in European Company Law”, 12 Eur. L. J. 534-556 (2006); “The Parallel Worlds of Corporate Governance and Labor Law”, 13 Ind. J. Glob. Leg. Stud. 261-312 (2006).

Peer C. Zumbansen
Associate Dean (Research, Graduate Studies and Institutional Relations)
Canada Research Chair for the Transnational
and Comparative Law of Corporate Governance
Osgoode Hall Law School
York University
4700 Keele St
Toronto, ON M3J 1P3
Email: pzumbansen@osgoode.yorku.ca