Private Law

The Department of Private Law is responsible for teaching and research in the broad field of private law. This field covers not only contract law, tort law and property law, but also commercial law, company law and family law. The Department equally covers private international law and insolvency law. The Department hosts about 40 staff members.

As to education, the Department teaches a wide variety of courses in both the bachelor and master stage. Characteristic for the Maastricht approach is that courses are not only offered on Dutch law (in the bachelor on Rechtsgeleerdheid and in various masters), but also on European and comparative private law (in the bachelor European Law School and masters). Special attention is paid to the role of law in its international, societal and economic context.

The research of the Department is embedded in both the Ius Commune Research School and various research institutes: the Maastricht European Private Law Institute (MEPLI), the Institute for Corporate Law, Governance and Innovation (ICGI) and the Maastricht Centre for Citizenship, Migration and Development (Macimide). Research is focused on Europeanisation, globalisation and migration.