From November 9 to 10, 2021, the fifth "German-East Asian Corporate and Capital Market Law" academic conference was successfully held online. The theme of the conference was "The Realistic Challenges Faced by Company Law and Capital Market Law". It lasted two days and consisted of four sessions. Nearly 60 corporate and securities scholars from our country, Germany, Japan and South Korea overcame the time difference and other obstacles to attend the conference with full enthusiasm. The online discussions were in-depth, warm, relaxed and friendly.

Professor Guo Li, Party Secretary and Vice Dean of the School of Law, co-organized the conference as the Chinese liaison. Professor Lou Jianbo, Associate Professor Chen Ruoying and Postdoctoral Doctor Li Huxing were invited to make keynote speeches, sharing the judicial practice of the Corporate Opportunity Doctrine in China, the active shareholder initiatives of China Securities Small and Medium Investor Service Center, etc., which triggered a warm response. Scholars from various countries also discussed cutting-edge legal issues highlighted in the securities market during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as the legal liability and relevant regulation of securities intermediaries in China, the general meetings of Internet shareholders in Germany and Japan and the resulting disputes over the validity of the resolutions of the general meetings, the restrictions and temporary prohibitions imposed by securities regulators in Germany and South Korea on "short sales" transactions during the pandemic, South Korea's approach to corporate social responsibility, and the latest regulatory progress of shareholders' voting consultants of listed companies in Japan under the framework of the Code of Due Diligence for Institutional Investors.

The conference series is hosted by the four countries in rotation, and PKU School of Law successfully hosted the conference in Beijing in 2018. The online conference is hosted by Frankfurt University Faculty of Law. Participants included Professor Klaus Hopt, a leading figure in corporate and securities law in Europe and North America; Professor Holger Fleischer, Director of the Max Planck Centre for Comparative and Private International Law; Professor Hideki Kanda (Gakushuin University), Professors Tomotaka Fujita and Gen Goto (University of Tokyo); and Professor Kon Sik Kim (Seoul National University), an authority on corporate law in South Korea. Professor Tang Xin, a securities expert from Tsinghua University, was also invited to speak.

The pandemic has postponed the conference originally scheduled to be held in Frankfurt, Germany in 2020. However, the profound friendship established by the experts of corporate securities laws of the four countries since 2013, the academic enthusiasm, spirit of exploration and international concern of the scholars have become a strong driving force for everyone to work together to overcome the difficulties. This is also a demonstration of PKU School of Law's efforts to accelerate the construction of a legal system with Chinese characteristics and actively promote the rule of law in foreign-related affairs in the new era.

Translated by: Jing Changheng

Edited by: Zhu Yichun