Professor Michael Martinek held the chair for Civil and Commercial Law, Business Organisation Law, Comparative Law and Private International Law of University of Saarland in Saarbruecken, Germany, from 1986 to 2019. He was also director of the Institute of European Law. He was born on October 5, 1950 near Duesseldorf where he went to school until 1969, specialising in ancient languages (Latin, Greek, Hebrew). Thereafter he underwent a practical apprenticeship in his father’s transport and shipping business which lasted two years, one of which he spent abroad (London, Birmingham, Paris, Milan). From 1971 to 1976 he studied law and philosophy in Berlin, London and Hamburg and passed the first state examination in law (1976). After two years of practical experience as lawyer in different positions he passed the second state examination in Hamburg (1979). He wrote a doctoral thesis in law (Dr.iur., Berlin 1978) and one in political sciences (Dr.rer.publ., Speyer 1981). He was awarded the degree „Master of Comparative Jurisprudence“ by New York University in 1982 after one years of studies in the USA. Thereafter he was an assistant to Professor Dieter Reuter at the universities of Tuebingen and Kiel. Having achieved the professorial qualification (venia legendi) in 1986, he was a docent at university of Muenster/Westfalia, before he was appointed professor for life at Saarland University in Saarbruecken.
Professor Martinek remained faithful to Saarland University despite calls to other universities (Erlangen-Nuernberg, 1990; Freiburg/Breisgau, 1993). By the end of March 2019 and at the age of 68 years, Professor Martinek has been relieved from his duties as active full time professor, chairholder and institute director at Saarland University. He now enjoys the status of a retired professor emeritus with less teaching obligations and more time for research and the supervision of doctoral candidates. He is still closely linked to the law faculty in teaching advanced law students. His major fields of research interest are German and European commercial and business law, trade regulation law and antitrust law, particularly the law of distribution systems and banking law. He has written more than thirty books or major treatises (some of them have become standard works) and more than two hundred and fifty articles, contributions and notes. In 1999 he was appointed Visiting Fellow to Warwick University school of law, England. In 2002 an honorary doctor degree has been conferred upon him by Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (ZUEL) in Wuhan, P.R. of China. In 2007 a doctor honoris causa by Université Lille 2 (Droit et Santé), France, and in 2009 a another doctor honoris causa by University of Craiova, Romania, followed. In 2013 the University of Warszawa, Poland, conferred an honorary doctor iuris degree upon him. He regularly is a visiting professor at ZUEL Wuhan and at University of Johannesburg (formerly: Rand Afrikaans University), Rep. of South Africa. In 2006 he was appointed Honorary Professor of Law and in 2015 Distinguished Visiting Professor at University of Johannesburg.
He is married to Margarethe Martinek and has two daughters, Madeleine Monalisa (born in 1988) and Monique Marylou (born in 1990). Professor Martinek devotes his scarce spare time to classical music and jazz, to piano playing and to bee keeping.
Tang Hang Wu is a Professor and Director of the Centre for Cross-Border Commercial Law in Asia at the School of Law, Singapore Management University. Hang Wu is also a consultant at TSMP Law Corporation where he co-heads the Trusts and Private Wealth desk. His research interests include land law, restitution, equity, trusts, charity and non-profit law. Hang Wu has published widely and his most recent book is, The Principles of the Law of Restitution in Singapore. His academic work has been cited in judgments from the Singapore courts, Federal Court of Malaysia and other Commonwealth countries. He is frequently instructed by other law firms to act as Counsel before the Singapore courts and has advised high net worth individuals, banks, trustees, the U.S Department of Justice and international law firms on complex property and trust issues. Outside his work in academia and practice, he serves on boards and committees of multiple non-profit organisations including the Strata Titles Board, Special Needs Trust Company and Community Foundation of Singapore. For his service, he has been presented with awards from the Law Society of Singapore, Ministry of Law, Ministry of National Development and Ministry of Social & Family Affairs.
Prof. (Dr.) Harpreet Kaur is Professor of Law at National Law University Delhi where she has been teaching corporate laws, securities regulations, business laws and competition law. She has specialized in commercial laws and completed her Doctor of Laws on the topic of Corporate Liability. She is the Director, Centre for Corporate Law and Governance at NLUD. She is a Fulbright Scholar in Residence and International Visitors Leadership Programme Fellow, USA. She served as Rotating Chair Professor of Indian Studies at Leibniz University, Hannover, Germany for a semester. She is a visiting professor to Faculty of Law, University of Bergen, Norway. She has co-authored seven books with Dr. Avtar Singh and authored one book on Business and Corporate Laws.
Megumi Hara is a professor at the Law School of Gakushuin University, Tokyo, where she teaches civil law and trust law. She is also appointed by the Ministry of Justice as a researcher/consultant on the project to reform the immovable property law and its registration. She has published numerous articles in the field of property law as well as other topics concerning civil law. Recently, she served as a delegate of Japan for the Diplomatic Conference for the adoption of the draft Protocol to the Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment on Matters specific to Agricultural, Construction and Mining Equipment (MAC Protocol). She has also participated in the deliberations of Working Group VI on security interests for UNCITRAL either as a delegate of Japan or as an observer.
Steven Gallagher is Associate Dean (Teaching and Learning). Steven has taught equity and trusts, land law, company law, insolvency law and cultural heritage law. His research interests include cultural heritage, legal history and equity. He is currently researching issues in cultural heritage law in Asia.
Katie Lam is a final-year J.D. candidate at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, concluding her part-time studies in July 2020. Katie completed her undergraduate at the University of Rochester in the United States. Under the guidance of Professor Stanley Engerman, Katie was awarded the William Morse Hastings Prize for her dissertation on China’s happiness paradox. Katie has also deepened her understanding of various aspects of international laws through working at the European Union, where she was involved in researching on energy and transportation policies.
Katie’s research interests lie in the areas of financial regulations, international taxation, and equity and trusts. A developing interest, and the subject of the paper at this conference, is the Malaysian jurisprudence in the law of unjust enrichment, with a focus on whether there exists a coherent framework between the statutory regime and the common law principles in Malaysia.
Academic aside, Katie currently works in a multinational hospitality group and oversees compliance measures of the hotels across the Asia Pacific region.
Arthur Lee joined the Chinese University of Hong Kong as a Professional Consultant after almost 10 years of practice in Chancery and Commercial law, having a strong interest in claims involving unjust enrichment and trusts, and is experienced in dealing in claims relating to fiduciary duties, as well as those concerning third party liability.
In addition, he is also very experienced in criminal litigation in the Magistrate’s courts and is regularly briefed to prosecute as well as defend a wide range of offences.
He currently teaches Unjust Enrichment, Company Law, and various litigation-related courses on the PCLL.
Ms LIN Chi Nga was born and raised in the land of Macau. Ms Lin is currently a postgraduate student in international business law (English language) at the Faculty of Law of the University of Macau (UM), where she serves as a teaching fellow of Obligation Law and Tax Law. One of her research results was published by the Macau Law Review as the sole author. She finished the degree programme of Bachelor of Law (Dean’s Honours List), which was conducted bilingually, in Portuguese and Chinese, at the Faculty of Law of UM. Ms Lin was one of the first batch’s students who were able to study law in both official languages of the Macau SAR, which is considered to be essential for future career development in Macau. She was admitted to UM with great honour by receiving the highest level of scholarships of Principals’ Recommended Admission, the University of Macau Grand Lotus Scholarship, as one of the first students who were granted this scholarship which was established for the very first time in the history of UM and there were only four scholarship winners then. Ms Lin has also received other scholarships during her study, including the SJM Scholarship (Sociedade de Jogos de Macau) and Nuno Simões & Associados Scholarship. Because of the excellent academic performance and satisfying grade, Ms Lin had also eligibility for early admission to Honours College of UM and successfully defended her Honours Thesis in Law (in English) in her senior year. During her Bachelor’s Degree Programme, she went to study law in European traditional law schools in Portugal twice, the first time at the University of Porto and the second time at the University of Coimbra. With the passion of pursuing an academic career, she started her research work with the Dean of the faculty, Prof. TONG Io Cheng, by co-authoring the new law textbook in the field of General Theory of Civil Law. As a member of the Research Association of Legislation and Jurisprudence of Macau, Ms Lin has been doing different work as a legal adviser, especially writing a legal column frequently for the biggest Macau local newspaper and giving legal advice to other types of work which involve legal issues. Other roles of Ms Lin include being a contract proof-reader of translated work of classic Portuguese law textbook, at the Centre for Law Studies of the Faculty of Law of UM.
Dr. Siyi Lin currently is a legal manager at King & Wood Mallesons Hong Kong Office (“KWM”). Her practice focuses on cross-border mergers and acquisitions and private equity matters. Dr. Lin holds an LLB degree from China University of Political Science and Law (2014), an LLM and PhD degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (respectively 2014 and 2019). Dr. Lin’s major research interests are unjust enrichment, trust law, Chinese contract law and tort law. She has published several in-depth research articles in international law journals.
Dr. Qiao Liu is Professor at the City University of Hong Kong School of Law. His previous posts include Associate Professor at the TC Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland (Australia); Lee Ka Shing Visiting Professor at McGill University Faculty of Law; specially appointed Tengfei Adjunct Professor at Xi’an Jiaotong University School of Law (China). Professor Liu is an Honorary Professor at the TC Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland (Australia) and holds a Visiting Professorship at Xiamen University School of Law (China).
Professor Liu teaches and researches in a wide range of business-related common law and Chinese law topics including contract, commercial law, unjust enrichment, international commercial law (sale of goods, transfer of funds etc), financial transactions, with a particular interest in comparative study of Chinese and Anglo-Australian private law. He has published widely in the above areas, including over 50 books and articles. His articles have appeared in leading journals including the Modern Law Review, American Journal of Comparative Law and the Cambridge Law Journal. His book entitled ‘Anticipatory Breach’ (Hart Publishing Oxford 2011) is regarded by epic common law courts and top scholars as a leading monograph on an important topic of English contract law. He also co-authored a contract textbook with Professor Ewan McKendrick of the University of Oxford (Contract Law Australian Edition, Palgrave Macmillan 2015) and translated Peter Birks’ seminal book ‘Unjust Enrichment’ (2nd edn OUP 2005) into Chinese (Tsinghua University Press, 2012). Professor Liu’s works have been cited by epic common law courts including the Singapore Court of Appeal and the New Zealand Court of Appeal as well as by the English High Court and to the House of Lords.
Professor Liu has been a Founding Deputy Editor-in-Chief for the Chinese Journal of Comparative Law (OUP) since 2013 and has served as its Editor-in-Chief since late 2017. He is presently Joint Editor-in-Chief of the Journal. He is also a Foreign-related Commercial and Maritime Adjudication Expert at the Supreme People’s Court in Beijing and a United Nations Commission on International Trade Law expert for updating the UNCITRAL Digest of Case Law on the CISG. Professor Liu has won highly prestigious and fiercely competitive grants in Australia, China and elsewhere, including the Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award fellowship (as the only awardee in the discipline of law) in 2015 and the Chinese State Social Science Fund Project in 2011. He has served as expert witness in both Australia and greater China in a number of international commercial cases.
Dr Karmen Lutman is a Teaching and Research Assistant at the Faculty of Law, University of Ljubljana. Her teaching concerns law of obligations, property law and introduction to private law. In her research she focuses on the law of restitution, unjustified enrichment, consequences of failed contracts and consumer law. Karmen received a BA in Law from the University of Ljubljana in 2012 and proceeded to take an MA degree in German and European Law and Legal Practice at the Faculty of Law, Humboldt University of Berlin, funded by the German Academic Exchange Service and the Fundation Parus. Supervised by Prof. Dr. Gerhard Dannemann she defended her master thesis Unwinding Mutual Contracts: The Change of Position Defence in German and English Law in 2014. During her postgraduate studies, she worked as a Judicial Trainee at the Court of Appeal in Ljubljana and passed the state bar exam in 2016. Karmen joined Faculty of Law in Ljubljana as an Assistant in October 2016, where she completed her doctorate in private law and defended her doctoral thesis Unjustified Enrichment in Comparative and Slovenian Law in 2019. In 2020 her book on the law of unjustified enrichment is going to be published in Slovenia. She is the author of numerous scientific publications in the field of unjustified enrichment and restitution and attended several international conferences in order to present her research in this field. She has also spent time as a Visiting Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and Private International Law in Hamburg.
Dr. Muruga Perumal Ramaswamy is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Macau. He is the area coordinator of services teaching at the Faculty including the interdisciplinary Master’s program in Data Science and Law and also serves as the area coordinator of Master’s program in International Law. He was a past research fellow at the Centre for Research at the Hague Academy of International Law, Netherlands and a visiting fellow at the University of Cambridge, UK. In 2015, he was designated to serve as the Official Observer of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law. His research interest includes international law, international trade and commercial laws, foreign investment law, information technology law, data protection laws and international business law.
Professor Wolff was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Law in January 2019 and assumed the Deanship on 30 September 2019. Prior to that he was the Dean of the CUHK Graduate School from September 2014 to August 2019. Professor Wolff was a founding member of the Faculty of Law (then: School of Law). He has served amongst others as Associate Dean (Faculty Development) (9/2008 to 7/2010), as Director of the Master of Laws Programmes in International Economic Law, Common Law and Chinese Business Law (9/2008 to 7/2011) and as Associate Dean (Graduate Studies) & Head of Graduate Division of Law (8/2010 to 8/2014). Professor Wolff specializes in International and Chinese Business Law, Comparative Law, and Private International Law. He has studied, worked and conducted research in a number of jurisdictions, including mainland China, Taiwan, and the USA. He is admitted to practice in England & Wales and in Germany. He is frequently invited to work as consultant with multi-national companies and law firms on investment projects in the Greater China region.