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The Chair deals with issues arising in relation to private and business law. Swiss private law, including its European and international dimensions, is at the forefront of the research activities. Research into the corresponding regulatory frameworks in the neighbouring legal systems of Germany, Austria and the Principality of Liechtenstein forms an important addition in this respect.
Within the key area of private law, the main focus is on general contract law and non-contractual liability law. Questions concerning so-called "private social law", in particular consumer law, are also the subject of academic research. Considerable attention is therefore paid to empirical research in general and (behavioural) economic considerations in particular.
Within the context of commercial law issues, research at the Chair primarily concentrates on private insurance law as well as antitrust and unfair completion law and is responsible for practice-related commentary works and textbooks in these areas.
With regard to the specific topic of cross-border transactions, the main focus is placed on private international law and international civil procedure, including any relevant unified law (in particular the CISG and the unified transport law).
Finally, the Chair’s research is particularly directed towards current developments in the technology sector and the related challenges regarding legal implementation. The Center for Innovation, Risk and Responsibility (CIRR), which is based at the Chair, is devoted to such questions of technology law.
At the Chair, comparative law is the axiomatic foundation required to successfully examine all of the questions above.
The current chair holder, Prof. Dr. Leander D. Loacker, succeeded Prof. Dr. Anton K. Schnyder, who held the chair from March 2003 to January 2018. His predecessor was Prof. Dr. Kurt Siehr, who is now working at the Max Planck Institute Hamburg and who had previously held the chair from 1981 to 2002. He, in turn, was preceded by Prof. Dr. Max Keller, who held the chair from 1981 to 2002. Parallel to Keller, Prof. Dr. Anton Heini, a disciple of Prof. Dr. Max Gutzwiller, represented the subject of conflict of laws at the University of Zurich.
In the first half of the 20th century, the same subject was represented in its full scope (i.e. private international law and international civil procedure) by Prof. Dr. Friedrich Meili, Prof. Dr. Hans Fritzsche and Honorary Professor Dr. Werner Niederer in particular at the Zurich Law Faculty.
Reading recommendation: Portraits of all the above-mentioned personalities can be found in an article by Prof. Dr. Anton K. Schnyder which is available in full text (IPR) here (PDF, 1 MB)(IPR) and here (PDF, 787 KB) (IZVR).
