Dedicated to Professor Dieter Seebach on the occasion of his 65th birthday Diaquapalladium(2 ) trifluoromethanesulfonates modified with (4R,4'S)-or (4S,4'S)-2,2'-bis(4-benzyl-4,5-dihydrooxazole) (C s -and C 2 -ligands) produce isotactic poly(1-oxo-2-phenylpropane-1,3-diyl) through copolymerization of styrene with carbon monoxide. However, the same meso-catalyst in the presence of the free ligand leads to prevailingly syndiotactic growth of the copolymer, whereas the optically active catalyst, when used in the presence of the free enantiomeric ligand, gives an atactic copolymer.Asymmetric catalysis leading to the synthesis of stereoregular copolymers has been a matter of intense interest [1] since the discovery of isotactic polypropylene and its rationalization based on the existence of enantiomorphic catalytic sites [2]. The discovery of the relationship between the symmetry properties of the catalytic system and the microstructure of the produced polymers in the case of the propene polymerization by zirconocene catalytic systems is particularly intriguing [3] [4].Despite the development of a variety of palladium-nitrogen-donor ligands catalytic systems to promote the synthesis of stereoregular styrene/carbon monoxide (CO) copolymers 1 [5], the factors involved in the enantioface discrimination during the related copolymerization of olefins with CO are much less understood [6] [7].We showed that [Pd(PP)(H 2 O) 2 ][OTf] 2 complexes (where PP is either (1R,1'S)-or (1RS,1'RS)-1,2-bis[1,1'-(diphenylphosphino)ethyl]benzene, OTf trifluoromethanesulfonate), when used as catalyst precursors for the copolymerization of propene with CO, produce both isotactic poly(1-methyl-2-oxopropane-1,3-diyl) [8]. The meso-ligand shows higher stereospecificity and much higher catalytic activity than the racemic-