Research Interests
Civil Law, Private International Law, International Commercial Law, International Commercial Arbitration, Comparative Law

Teaching Interests Conflict of Laws, International Commercial Law, International Civil Proceedings, Comparative Law

Subjects Taught
International Business Transactions

Brief Bio

Professor Thorn is full professor for Civil Law, Private International and International Commercial Law, and Comparative Law at Bucerius Law School, Hamburg, since 2004. He teaches and researches in different fields of private international law, international commercial law, and conflict of laws. He was a member of the full time faculty of the Summer Law Institute, Suzhou, which is a multinational business transactions workshop organized by Bucerius Law School, Cornell University Law School and Kenneth Wang Law School, Soochow University, which brings together law professors, legal practitioners and about 100 law students of all three jurisdictions. He composed the conception and held the training of the MBA-course in “Business Law: Focus on Asian-European Business Transactions” for Chinese and international executives with substantial experience in management at the China Europe International Business School, Shanghai. Professor Thorn taught as a guest lecturer at the University of Metz and at the University of Orléans, both in France. He is member of several academic or professional associations, among them the German-American Lawyers Association. Since 2005, he is Co-Editor of IPRax – Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts – one of the most distinguished German law journals on conflict of laws. Professor Thorn is also co-author of the “Palandt” one of the most important commentaries on the German Civil Code.

Recent Representative Publications

Books:

• Fälle zum Internationalen Privatrecht (Cases on Private International Law), 3rd, revised ed., 2007 (in cooperation with Dr. Angelika Fuchs and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Hau)
• Internationales Privatrecht: einschließlich der Grundzüge des internationalen Zivilverfahrensrechts (Private International Law, including an introduction to international civil procedure, 9th, revised ed., 2007 (in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Bernd von Hoffmann)

• “Palandt”-Editor since 68. ed. 2009 of the 2nd chapter „Private International Law“ in the first part: Art. 3-47 EGBGB (Code on conflicts of law)
• Art. 39 EGBGB (Code on conflicts of law), in: J. von Staudingers Kommentar zum Bürgerlichen Gesetzbuch mit Einführungsgesetz und Nebengesetzen, 2001 (in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Bernd von Hoffmann)

• Der Unternehmer im Kollisionsrecht (The contractor in conflict of laws), in: Bitter, Lutter, Priester, Schön, Ulmer (Hrsg.), Festschrift für Karsten Schmidt zum 70. Geburtstag (2009), S. 1561-1580
• Eingriffsnormen (Mandatory rules), in: Leible (eds.), Ein neues Internationales Vertragsrecht für Europa – Der Vorschlag für eine Rom I Verordnung, p. 129–149
• Besondere Kollisionsnormen und allgemeine Lehren des IPR (Specific rules and basic theory of Private International Law), in: Mansel/Kronke/Hausmann/Kohler/Pfeiffer (eds.), Festschrift für Erik Jayme (2004), p. 1128-1141
• The German Conflict of Laws Rules on Registered Partnerships, in: Boele-Woelki/Fuchs (eds.), Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Couples in Europe, Antwerp 2003 (Intersentia), p. 159-168
• The German Law on Same-Sex Partnerships, in: Boele-Woelki/Fuchs (eds.), Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Couples in Europe, Antwerp 2003 (Intersentia), p. 84-98
• Länderbericht „Germany“ (National report „Germany“), in: von Ziegler/Ronøe/Debattista/Plégat-Kerrault (eds.), Transfer of Ownership in International Trade, Den Haag 1999 (Kluwer Law International), p. 181-200

• Europäisches Kollisionsrecht 2008: Fundamente der Europäischen IPR-Kodifikation (European Conflict of Laws 2008: Seatings of the European Private International Law Codification), IPRax 2009, S. 1-23 (gemeinsam mit Heinz-Peter Mansel und Rolf Wagner)
• Gerichtsstand des Erfüllungsorts und intertemporales Zivilverfahrensrecht (Jurisdiction based on the place of performance and intertemporal law of civil procedure), IPRax 2004, p. 354-357
• Internationale Produkthaftung des Zulieferers (International product liability of the sub-contractor), IPRax 2001, p. 561-567
• Das Centros-Urteil des EuGH im Spiegel der deutschen Rechtsprechung (The Centros sentence of the European Court of Justice as reflected in German case law), IPRax 2001, p. 102-110
• Termingeschäfte an Auslandsbörsen und Internationale Schiedsgerichtsbarkeit (Future transactions at foreign Stock Exchanges and international commercial arbitration), IPRax 1997, p. 98-106
• Erfolgsort bei grenzüberschreitenden Persönlichkeitsverletzungen (The law applicable to cross-border defamation by the media) [in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Horst Ehmann], AfP 1996, p. 20-25
• Ausländisches Akkreditiv und inländische Zahlstelle (External letter of credit and internal point of payment), IPRax 1996, S. 257-260
• Grenzüberschreitende Gerichtsstandsvereinbarungen in Kreditverträgen zur Finanzierung von Börsenspekulationen (Choice of court agreements in the framework of loan agreements to finance gamblings on the stock exchange), IPRax 1995, p. 294-299