Civil Law

Research

The focus of the research at the Department of Civil Law is the coherency of private law in national, European and global perspective.

Our research is conducted within the framework of the faculty research programme Coherent Private Law. Research staff examine the following main questions: how do national legislatures and civil courts respond to issues concerning coherency? What is the impact of European law, convention law and other areas of the law on private law? How does private law respond to interaction between and incorporation of various effects of European law, convention law and other areas of the law? How should such interaction and incorporation be assessed, in view of the interests involved with the rules to be embedded and in light of the social function of private law? Current research in the research programme Coherent Private Law can be followed via our Annual Updates, Twitter account, LinkedIn page and Leiden Law Blogs.

The Department also ventures into new areas of research such as the interface between the legal system and empirical analysis of law in action. The dedicated research project Empirical Legal Studies focuses on market, behaviour and the regulatory role of law.