On the morning of October 16, 2003, Mr.Michael Martinek, a famous professor of comparative law at Saarland University in Germany, came to the Institute of International Law of Wuhan University to give a special report to the students on the relevant issues of comparative law. Professor Huang Jin, Director of the Institute of International Law at Wuhan University, presided over the report. Professor Martinek first gave an overview of legal comparative studies. He believes that there is no uniform definition of what the concept of comparative law is. It is fair to say that the comparison is mainly based on private law, or on civil and commercial law. The purpose of comparison is to find solutions to the same legal issues or emerging legal issues. He also gave a brief introduction of the comparative study in Germany and its contribution to German law.

Regarding the research method of comparative law, he believes that it mainly focuses on the purpose of implementing comparative law, which includes the interpretation and understanding of concepts and the methodological problems of comparison. As far as the concept is concerned, it is not only necessary to look at the meaning of the concept in the legislation, but more importantly, to see its exact role in judicial practice. The interpretation of the concept is not a simple language explanation, it embodies the function of the specific concept in different cultural contexts. In terms of methodology, special attention should be paid to the function of the object being compared, and the object to be compared is placed in the context of social, economic, and legal systems to conduct research and analyze its functional role. In terms of comparative methods, we must not only analyze from the historical and economic perspectives, but also take into account the perspective of social analysis, and treat the comparative legal issues in a holistic social environment to see their relationship with other social issues. . Only in this way is the method real and has practical value. The comparison method can be divided into macro comparison method and micro comparison method according to the difference of comparison objects. Macro-comparative law is a comparison of larger legal issues such as legal system and legal system; micro-comparative law is a comparison of specific legal issues and legal provisions. Different comparison methods have different research methods. Finally, he concluded that the vitality of the comparative law lies in its fact that it does not depend on legal logic, but rather on the role of moving toward legal reference and unity. The maturity of comparative law avoids simple legal transplants and provides an important way for the development of national laws. When China is formulating its own civil code, it must not only see the rigor of the German civil code system, but also the social and cultural background of German civil law. It is necessary to give full play to the role of comparative law. Only in this way can we formulate civil laws that suit China's own characteristics. (Organizer: Yuan Faqiang)