Firms conduct business with other enterprises around the globe – and their workers are often stationed abroad. Modern societies are increasingly feeling the impact of transnational processes. How can we deal with the resulting issues and costs? What are the influences of global trade on working conditions and employment law? These are just some of the questions being examined by ZenTra – the Center for Transnational Studies at the University of Bremen and the University of Oldenburg.
“The way we think is still predominantly formed within the national frame”, says Renate Jürgens-Pieper, Bremen’s Senator of Education, Science and Health. The reality we live, though, calls many aspects of this into question. The Center, which is run jointly by the University of Bremen and the University of Oldenburg, is the order of the day, “…for we urgently need answers to the questions posed by the increasingly transnational world we are living in.”
ZenTra is embedded in the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg – Institute of Advanced Studies in Delmenhorst, which is located between Bremen and Oldenburg. “Our methodological approach is to combine aspects of studies in economics, law, and the social sciences”, says Prof.Dr.Hans-Michael Trautwein, Managing Director of ZenTra and Professor of International Economic Relations in Oldenburg. Over 50 researchers of the Universities of Bremen and Oldenburg will participate in ZenTra, supported by visiting scholars from other countries.
“Transnationalization is a topic we will hear a lot more about in future. It encompasses many facets – and these are being joined by new ones almost daily. We encourage other researchers to join us in trying to get a better grasp on understanding where the future of cross-border processes will take us”, says Prof.Dr. Gralf-Peter Calliess, ZenTra Director and Professor of International Business Law in Bremen. The Center will also be supported by Prof.Dr.Moritz Renner, the newly appointed Lichtenberg Professor of Transnational Business Law at the University of Bremen.
ZenTra is funded by the Mercator Foundation, the Volkswagen Foundation, and the federal states of Bremen and Lower Saxony. The project will also benefit from funding granted to the University of Bremen within the frame of the Excellence Initiative financed by the German Government and the federal states.
Contact:
Universität Bremen
Fachbereich Rechtswissenschaft
Prof.Dr. Gralf-Peter Calliess
Tel: 0421-218-66207
E-Mail: calliess@web.de
