‘IPRspr’ goes digital: launch and presentation of the new online database on 1 October 2024 (in German)

Since its foundation in 1926, the Max Planck Institute in Hamburg (or its predecessor) has continuously published the collection of PIL decisions by German courts. ‘Die deutsche Rechtsprechung auf dem Gebiete des Internationalen Privatrechts’, or short ‘IPRspr’, offers the complete and systematic documentation of German case law on private international law, including procedural law and foreign law. The decisions are boiled down to their private international law aspects and categorized according to subject matter. Depending on the case, the headnotes are reformulated or completely rewritten.

Even though both academics and practitioners have always regarded the IPRspr as an important source of information, its practical value was somewhat diminished by the time lag between the reporting period and the publication, as well as by the limited search options. In order to realize its full potential, it was therefore decided in 2019 to convert the IPRspr into a freely accessible database. After several years of planning, programming and updating, this project has now been successfully concluded under the direction of the Centre for the Application of Foreign Law, headed by Jan Peter Schmidt.

On 1 October 2024 at 11:00, the editorial team will officially present the ‘IPRspr 2.0’, as part of the series ‘Current Research in Private International Law’ (registration at <https://events.mpipriv.de/vorstellungderiprspr>; in line with the language of publication, the event will be in German). The database can already be accessed at <iprspr.de>.

The new IPRspr not only offers free and easy access to the PIL decisions of German courts, but also a wide range of search and retrieval functions. The database currently contains around 6,500 decisions dating back to 2004. New decisions are continually being incorporated. Next to the “Hamburg Guidelines for Ascertaining and Applying Foreign Law in German Litigation”, which will soon be published in their English translation, the IPRspr thus forms another building block for the successful dealing with cross-border cases.

As a book publication, however, the IPRspr will be discontinued. The volume published in 2022 with the decisions from 2019 was therefore the last edition of IPRspr as a printed work after almost a hundred years of existence.

The editorial team encourages the PIL community to cite decisions in parallel with the IPRspr number in future and to submit or communicate new decisions. And it looks forward to any other kind of feedback (iprspr@mpipriv.de).