LEGAL EXCHANGE IN CEE: THE EXAMPLE OF GMBH

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Martin Löhnig
• Subject Area: Principles of Law and Jurisprudence
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 557369215

The main objective of the project is the analysis and evaluation of legal exchange between Germany, Austria and Poland. “Exchange” covers in a comprehensive sense legal transfer and legal re-transfer as well as the migration of thoughts and ideas. In its spatial dimensions, legal exchange is multi-scalar and can take place at local, regional, national and global levels, in both horizontal and vertical directions. The ideal example to capture this phenomenon as an example for legal exchange as such between these three states located in CEE is the institution of limited liability company (GmbH). The project covers three periods: 1897-1918 (legal exchange between Germany and Austria), 1918-1939 (legal exchange between Germany/Austria and Poland and development in the interwar period) and 1989-2024 (Poland's reorientation and the question of re-transfer). This enables to analyze the background for the legal exchange process and the powers driving this phenomenon, to estimate the role of experts and interconnectedness between them, to evaluate the material results of the legal transfer incorporated in the adopted legal acts, to analyze the further development of this complex process and its long term effects and economic impact. In terms of methodology, the project is primarily an analysis of a transnational transfer network and its discourse using different instruments. As archival material is used for the most part, the realization of the project requires an application of the historical and legal history methods. The project is also of a legal nature, and therefore the dogmatic method will play an auxiliary role, consisting in the interpretation of legal acts and court decisions. Furthermore, the scientific discourse with its controversies related to the interpretation of legal provisions or even propositions de lege ferenda will be taken into account to the greatest possible extent. The interdisciplinary characteristics of the project are reflected in methods commonly used in the field of social sciences, mainly economics and sociology. Here belong: case studies, analysis of socio-economic environment and different tools used in the streams of institutional economics. To date, there have been studies on the GmbH from a national perspective. The project goes one step further and analyses the legal exchange of the relevant legal norms from different perspectives on a transnational level. The unique and innovative project reaches beyond the conventional framework of legal research and takes into account economic, social, cultural and interpersonal conditions and provides a network analysis.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Austria, Poland
• Partner Organisation: Narodowe Centrum Nauki (NCN)
• Cooperation Partners: Professorin Dr. Anna Moszynska; Dr. Kamila Staudigl-Ciechowicz