Chair of Civil Law, German and International Business and Company Law, and Capital Market Law

Civil law deals with disputes between individuals or organizations. These include not only natural and legal persons, but also all private associations with part or full legal capacity, e.g. partnerships and foundations. Civil law is primarily concerned with general contract law, the law of obligations, property law, and family and inheritance law. Company law provides the legal framework within which businesses operate, in particular partnerships such as general partnerships and limited partnerships on the one hand and corporations on the other hand. Corporation law deals primarily with the provisions governing stock corporations and limited liability companies. Corporate law is concerned with the legal relationships between the associated companies, in other words group companies. Transformation law deals with transformation procedures and legal structuring measures and in addition to regulating mergers also regulates de-mergers and the transformation of legal form. Business law provides the legal framework for business activity. In addition to commercial law, a special private law that caters to the needs of business people, this includes commercial administrative law, which within the framework of competitive law aims to ensure the competitive environment necessary to a market economy. Capital market law encompasses a very special area of business law, addressing in a similar manner the institutional framework for business activity, e.g. by regulating conditions for the creation of stock markets and admission to trading. Furthermore, it also regulates the conditions under which trading in the capital market takes place. To this end the German Securities Trading Act (WpHG) in particular includes obligations such as a ban on insider trading. The German Securities Acquisition and Takeover Act governs the acquisition of shares, and numerous other laws serve to establish transparent trading conditions.

Teaching and research activities at the Chair address all the above areas. The research focus is equally divided between civil law on the one hand and company and business law on the other hand. In civil law activities concentrate on contract law, product liability law and credit security law. Corporate law on the other hand centres on limited liability company law and stock corporation law, the latter both from a legal/organizational perspective and also addressing the relevant aspects of capital market law.

Lectures aims to develop the students' knowledge and an understanding of legal methods in the above areas. In particular, this requires taking into account the latest legal developments. Teaching also focuses on the historical and social context and is currently concerned, for instance, with the reasons behind the so-called financial crisis and measures to address the problems. Building on this, specialist courses and seminars will be held on cutting-edge legal issues in the respective areas, which will help students develop the skills required to produce independent and creative academic work.