Modern Private Law and History of Modern Private Law

Research Field

The core area of the department’s work focuses on theoretically and historically informed private law research. The research carried out in this research field includes the legal doctrine, methodology and structure of contemporary private law including comparative and European private law, as well as theories of (intellectual) property, contract, tort and unjust enrichment law. A further focus of this research field involves the history of modern private law, in particular the history of ideas tied to modern law as well as the genesis of fundamental concepts such as person, subjective right and autonomy. The thematic field offers numerous possibilities for researching both the affirmative and critical aspects of private law in terms of a social praxis of modern society. As a result, a broad variety of cross- and interconnections to the research fields ‘Multidisciplinary Legal Theory’ and ‘The Theory of Legal Science’ are present.