Professor Michael Martinek holds the chair for Civil and Commercial Law, Business Organisation Law, Comparative Law and Private International Law of University of Saarland in Saarbruecken, Germany, since 1986. He is 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). 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 is director of the Institute of European Law of Saarland University. 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 music and to bee keeping.

Saarbruecken, May 2018

Professor Dr. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Michael Martinek