Prof. Dr. Patrick C. Leyens, LL.M. (London)

Professor of Civil Law, Commercial and Corporate Law
- Vice Dean -

Director of Institute for Commercial Law

Forum am Domshof, Room 20031

Office hours: by appointment

Contact
+49 (0) 421 218 – 66140 (dd)
+49 (0) 421 218 – 66004 (Secretariat)
leyensuni-bremen.de
sekretariat.leyensuni-bremen.de

Mailing address:
Universität Bremen
Fachbereich Rechtswissenschaft
Forum am Domshof
Domshof 26
28195 Bremen
Germany

Supply chain law is intended to encourage companies to protect human rights and environmental protection concerns along their supply and activity chains at home and abroad. Following the LkSG, which came into force in 2023, supply chain law is now also being consolidated in EU law through the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) published in the Official Journal on 5 July 2024.
This article examines the impact of business activities in high-risk areas or sectors on due diligence obligations under supply chain law. It then presents initial experiences, risks of the development of obligations and recommendations for action.

The article can be accessed via Beck-Online.

Patrick C. Leyens/Julius M. Goetsch, Hochrisikogebiete und -branchen im Lieferkettenrecht: Erste Erfahrungen, Pflichtenentwicklung und Handlungsempfehlungen, ESG 2024, 365.

On 28.6.2024, the block event of this year's seminar in the university elective "International and European Business Law" took place. The topic was: "Mergers & Acquisitions: Cycle of a corporate transaction". The seminar was organized by Prof. Dr. Patrick C. Leyens, LL.M. (London), together with Dr. Markus A. Braun, M.Jur. (Oxford), lawyer (Rechtsanwalt) and specialist lawyer for commercial and corporate law and associated partner at the law firm NOERR Munich. The pictures show the conclusion of the event at a dinner hosted by the law firm NOERR.

Participants are: Y. Acet, M. Fiene, S. Kaya, L. Krieger, J. Koop, T. Lehnau, M. Meyer, R. Müller, J. Romeiser, E. Uhlig as well as Julius Goetsch, Valentin Hubert and Sebastian Köhnlein.

How can globally active companies be encouraged to protect human rights along their supply chains? With the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz, LkSG), which essentially came into force on January 1, 2023, the German legislator has provided an answer based on material due diligence obligations.

In a current article, Leyens and Goetsch present the regulatory approach, functioning and due diligence obligations of the LkSG in a student-friendly way and provide a first insight into the still emerging field of supply chain law.

The article is available to students of the University of Bremen as a free download via the university's online access.

Patrick C. Leyens/Julius M. Goetsch, Das neue Lieferkettenrecht – Menschenrechtsschutz zwischen privatem und öffentlichem Recht, JURA 2024, 221.

The students of the European Master in Law & Economics (EMLE) decided: Prof. Patrick C. Leyens is the Best Teacher of the Year of 2022/23. Patrick teaches Corporate Governance & Finance at the EMLE partner institution Erasmus University of Rotterdam, where he serves as a professor of law and economics since 2014. In his announcement Prof. Louis Visscher, EMLE Director at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, states: “I think no teacher in the history of EMLE was ever so positively evaluated by the students. Congratulations, Patrick!”

The handbook edited by Klaus J. Hopt, Peter Hommelhoff and Patrick C. Leyens with the title "Unternehmensführung durch Vorstand und Aufsichtsrat: Aktien-, Kapitalmarkt- und Bilanzrecht, Corporate Governance" ("Corporate Governance by the Management Board and Supervisory Board: Stock Corporation, Capital Market and Accounting Law, Corporate Governance"), draws on the interplay of all relevant legal sources (AktG, WpHG, MAR, WpÜG, accounting law, DCGK and others) to show what the management of capital market-oriented companies must do as a minimum and may do as a maximum.

Corporate governance is becoming increasingly difficult for management boards, supervisory boards, managing directors and their advisors. The challenges are also increasingly of a legal and regulatory nature. They are primarily reflected in stock corporation, capital market and accounting law with more extensive European requirements and international expectations. Responding internally with compliance, risk management and adequate, company-specific corporate governance requires great skill.

With its innovative approach, this handbook of corporate governance offers help and suggestions for adapting to new expectations, reforms, risks and obligations in good time. It explains the most important national and European legal regulations in detail and conveys the diverse interrelationships between the areas and levels of regulation (law, code, disclosure obligations). The central theme of the handbook is the so-called “Pflichtenentwicklungsrisiko” (“obligation development risk”). The main focus here is on the realization that code rules, expectations of supervisory authorities or, initially, mere transparency rules often condense into general obligations under company law. It is important for company managers and their advisors to recognize such developments at an early stage and to react appropriately.

The 50 thematic articles in the handbook are written by experienced company managers and leading practitioners and academics. The handbook has been published by C.H.BECK and will soon be available via beck-online.

Stefan Heiss received the Theodor Körner Award for his dissertation project. The Theodor Körner Fund supports rising scientists from a wide range of disciplines. Laureates are already doing excellent work in their fields and further innovative work can be expected. The prize was awarded by the Austrian Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen (on the right in the picture). Stefan’s project was the only work in the field of law to be honored.

The topic of the doctoral project supervised by Professor Patrick C. Leyens is entitled "Artificial Intelligence and Civil Liability". Overall, the aim of the research project is to develop solutions for liability gaps resulting from AI. Insufficient liability rules can lead the development of new technologies into an inadequate direction. Liability law plays a central role in risk governance and providing incentives for the usage of socially desirable AI.

See here for further information.

June 9, 2022

Smart Contracts promise to entail substantial efficiency gains for transactions in the B2B context, which rely on simplicity, promptness, and legal certainty. In an article written in German, Patrick C. Leyens, Stefan Heiss, and Lukas Soritz analyze an important question for B2B transactions: Whether and to what extent is existing law capable of enabling the digital transformation of the economy regarding Smart Contracts. First, increased personal responsibility of the participants makes private autonomy a central interest, and especially considering it gives greater leeway to self-enforcing arrangements. Second, the improved possibility of information processing leads to a restrained control of general terms and conditions. To conclude, Smart Contracts have the potential to be the main driver of a self-written law by B2B actors in the digitalized economy.

Open-Access download: https://doi.org/10.33196/jbl202203013701

Date: May 5, 2022

In a recent paper, Stefan Heiss analyzes the European Parliament’s draft regulation on new liability rules for Artificial Intelligence. Since insufficient liability rules might lead the development of the technology into an inadequate direction, further assessment of the draft regulation’s consequences is needed. In conclusion, reciprocal damages between AI-systems are not addressed appropriately by the European proposal. The reason, in essence, is that when two high-risk AI Systems cause harm to each other none would in fact bear the total amount of losses. This is due to the inherent nature of tort law’s reciprocal compensation. In order to close this gap a scheme of “strict liability to the state” is outlined. AI operators involved are strictly liable, but instead of compensating the other party, payments of the caused damage are made to the state. The paper was published by Hastings Science and Technology Law Journal.

Open-Access download: https://repository.uchastings.edu/hastings_science_technology_law_journal/vol12/iss2/4

SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3827326

Based on the research above, a German article has been published in the European Journal of Business Law (EuZW) by Stefan Heiss. In addition, the paper discusses the significant changes introduced by the European Commission's proposal on AI and includes comparisons with European and German law.

Download: https://beck-online.beck.de/Dokument?vpath=bibdata%2Fzeits%2Feuzw%2F2021%2Fcont%2Feuzw.2021.932.1.htm&anchor=Y-300-Z-EUZW-B-2021-S-932-N-1

Date: Nov. 8, 2021

The edited volume „Smart Regulation: Vertrag, Unternehmung und Markt“ [Smart Regulation: Contract, Corporation and Market] contains the contributions to the same titled symposium, which took place on October 2, 2020 at the Karl-Franzens-University Graz, Austria. Smart Regulation focusses on innovative approaches to regulation. The interdisciplinary research on it gathered in this volume addresses the challenges and opportunities of new technologies, takes into account novel insights into human behavior, and helps to unlock forward-looking regulatory techniques. The volume has been edited by Patrick C. Leyens, Iris Eisenberger and Rainer Niemann.

Print: ISBN 978-3-16-160734-8, DOI 10.1628/978-3-16-160734-9

eBook (Open Access): eISBN 978-3-16-160734-9

Datum: 10.08.2021

Patrick C. Leyens is professor of private law, corporate and commercial law at the University of Bremen since 2020. Since winter term 2024/25 he serves as the faculty’s vice dean. In his research he focuses on contracts, corporations and capital markets, especially corporate governance and corporate finance, comparative law and law and economics.

Leyens studied law at the University of Cologne, passed the first German state exam in 1999 and received an LL.M. from the University of London in 2000. The second German state exam (bar exam) followed 2006 after training positions in Hamburg, New York and Sydney. He received a PhD (Dr. iur) in 2006 and a postdoctoral degree (Habilitation) in 2015 from the University of Hamburg. Both research projects were supervised by Prof. Dr. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Klaus J. Hopt, M.C.J. (NYU).

From 2001 to 2007, he was a research assistant and later senior research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg. In 2007, he was appointed junior professor of private law and economic analysis of the law at the University of Hamburg. He was engaged in the building up of the tri-national European Doctorate in Law & Economics and acted as the program’s Hamburg director. Since 2014 he is Professor (hon.) at the Rotterdam Institute of Law and Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam. After interim professorships in Berlin (Humboldt), Munster and Hamburg he became the professor of law and business research at the Karl-Franzens-University of Graz, Austria.

From 2007 to 2009, he advised the German Federal Ministry of Finance and the German Federal Parliament on the reform of depositor and investor protection. In 2012, he acted as a speaker at the 69th meeting of the corporate and commercial law section of the Association of German Jurists (DJT). Since 2014, he is a member of the Committee on Corporate Governance Reporting at the Schmalenbach Society for Business Management, and since 2021 Member of the Committee of Corporate Accounting of the Verein für Socialpolitik (a society for the furtherance of economic thought).

He held research fellowships, inter alia, at the University of Cambridge and New York University. Several awards were awarded to him in recognition of his research and teaching activities (cf. list of publications/lectures).

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