Foundations and Methods of Law
The research program of the department of Foundations and Methods of Law covers the following areas:1. Civil procedure in a comparative and historical perspective
Program coordinator: Prof. dr. C.H. Rhee
The research interests of several members of the department concern civil procedure in a comparative and historical perspective. The main focus is on research in fundamental aspects of the world’s civil procedural systems.
Research topics include
(1) fundamental principles of civil procedure,
(2) the impact of (legal) culture on civil litigation,
(3) the relationship between civil procedural rules and procedural practice,
(4) fundamental differences and similarities between Anglo-American and Continental systems of civil procedure,
(5) the historical foundations of these similarities and differences,
(6) civil procedural “transplants”,
(7) civil procedure and mixed legal systems, and
(8) harmonisation of civil procedure on a European and global scale.
Research into national procedural systems is not excluded, as long as the national findings can be presented within a more general, European or global comparative context.
2. European Legal History
Coordinators: Prof. dr. L. Berkvens and Prof. dr. C.H. van Rhee
Research in European Legal History concentrates on the historic ius commune and customary law as a foundation of modern private law and civil procedural law.
Research themes include:
(1) the role and effects of contributory negligence in liability law: from classical Roman law to modern European national laws,
(2) the role of presumptions in the law of proof: divergences explained on the basis of historical antecedents,
(3) the influence of the historic ius commune in common law jurisdictions,
(4) mixed legal systems: the way ahead for modern Europe?,
(5) the South-African experiment: the interaction of English procedural law with Roman-Dutch substantive law,
(6) 19th c. codification projects in the US: the extent of Continental European influences,
(7) the emergence of localized versions of Ius Commune in the Rhine-Meuse Territories.
3. Philosophy of Private Law
Coordinator: Prof. J. C. Hage
The research program on the philosophy of private law aims at an understanding of private law which goes deeper than knowledge and evaluation of the rules of private law that are valid in a particular jurisdiction. The research in this field can be divided into two main categories, that is issues concerning the basic concepts of private law, and issues concerning the normative foundations of private law.
Research questions that fit in this program include, but are not confined to:
• What is a legal transaction?
• Why are contracts binding?
• Can contract parties bind other persons? How to delimit the legal consequences that can result from a contract?
• To what extent is freedom of the will relevant for the validity of contracts?
• How are the different grounds for liability, such as contract, tort and unjustified enrichment related to each other?
• What is the relation between retributive justice and economic efficiency in the law of obligations?
• What are property rights?
• What is the justification of property rights?
• What is a just distribution of property rights?
• What are suitable objects for property rights?
