Mission Statement

The Department of Corporate and Financial Law focuses on the legal foundations of modern financial markets from an international and interdisciplinary perspective. In addition to regular research and teaching the cooperation with law practitioners, public conferences and policy consulting, the supervision of Ph.D.-theses as well as the direction of a doctorate and Ph.D. program are part and parcel of our work.

Profile

Broad Research Perspective: Our legal finance institutes and chairs cover all the central areas of law and finance in their research and teaching activities. With respect to European and international law, we focus on: banking, insurance and capital market law, company law and the law of corporate groups, antitrust law and regulation, monetary law and the law of central banks.

Exceptional Research Output: We put particular emphasis on high-quality research. Members of the Department have generated important publications and are also extremely active as editors of working papers, book series and law reviews. The latter include Corporate Ownership and Control, the European Business Organization Law Review, the Financial Law Review, Zeitschrift für Versicherungsrecht, Zeitschrift für die gesamte Versicherungswissenschaft, Zeitschrift für Bankrecht und Bankwirtschaft, Zeitschrift für Corporate Governance, Zeitschrift für das gesamte Handels- und Wirtschaftsrecht and Der Konzern, Corporate Finance law.

Knowledge Transfer: Our participation in various national and international expert committees and in policy and legislative consulting supports a fruitful exchange between theory and practice. Members of the Department are involved in: the Restatement Group of European Insurance Contract Law, at the European Corporate Governance Institute in Brussels, in the Advisory Group on Company Law and Corporate Governance at the European Commission, in the advisory board of the Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht (BaFin), Germany’s financial regulator, in the Company Law Expert Group of the European Commission, in Commission of the German Corporate Governance Code, and in the executive board of the German Association for the Science of Insurance, and in the Study Group of the European Commission to draft a Model Business Corporation Act.

High-Quality Teaching: Effective knowledge transfer is secured by top-quality course offerings and, in particular, by an efficient linkage between research and teaching activities. In this respect, the supervision of Ph.D. projects at the doctoral and postdoctoral level is highly important, such as the interdisciplinary doctorate/Ph.D. program “Law and Economics of Money and Finance”, the interdisciplinary Master of Laws in Finance, and postgraduate training during the Fall Academy “Insurance Law” .