European Legal Studies Institute: Fachbereich Rechtswissenschaften

Welcome

to the website of the European Legal Studies Institute (ELSI)! The professors working at the Institute, Prof. Dr Christoph Busch, Prof. Dr Oliver Dörr, Prof. Dr Thomas Groß, Prof. Dr Mary-Rose McGuire, Prof. Dr Hans Schulte-Nölke, Prof. Dr Sören Segger-Piening and Prof. Dr Fryderyk Zoll, are delighted that you are interested in their work. On this website you will find more about the Institute's publications, events, its research library and its co-operation partners. You can get also information about the professors' teaching, particularly in the specialisation areas, SPB 1, SPA 3, SPB 4 and SPB 5. International guests can find out about the institute and receive tips for a research stay at the ELSI.

News

Doctoral candidates' day on 11.02.2026

All doctoral students of the School of Law at Osnabrück University and all law students from about the 7th semester onwards who are interested in a doctorate are cordially invited to the School's Doctoral Candidates' Day on 11.02.2026. From 14:00, various workshops and information events on the Doctorate will take place at the European Legal Studies Institute.

Program (PDF, 4.02 MB)

Registration form

Celebration of Professor Ahrens' 80th birthday

The School of Law at Osnabrück University invites you to a symposium to mark the 80th birthday of Prof. Dr. Hans-Jürgen Ahrens. It will take place on January 16, 2026 at 4 pm at the European Legal Studies Institute (ELSI) of Osnabrück University. For more information, please see the program.

Program (PDF, 457 kB)

IJVO Lecture with Matthias Schrader

The next IJVO Lecture will be held on January 14, 2026 at 6:00 p.m. (s.t.) by Matthias Schrader on the topic: "Arbitrator Liability - Legitimate Expectations of Arbitrators and Parties vs. Due Process Paranoia". He is a partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP and acts specifically as party counsel in court and arbitration proceedings. In his presentation, he will examine the perspective of arbitrators (candidates) and the parties with regard to liability issues in selected phases of the arbitration proceedings. In particular, he will discuss what information candidates should disclose prior to their appointment as arbitrators, how certain procedural issues are to be decided and what effects errors in the arbitral award can have against the background of liability law.
The event will take place at the European Legal Studies Institute in room 44/E03.

Guest lecture by Professor Kunihiro Nakata

On 12.11.2025, Professor Kunihiro Nakata from Ryukoku University (Kyoto) gave a guest lecture on Japanese consumer law at the European Legal Studies Institute. The guest lecture took place at the invitation of Prof. Dr. Christoph Busch as part of the Digital Law focus area.
Prof. Busch and Prof. Nakata are jointly leading the comparative law research project "Regulation of e-commerce platforms in Japan and the EU". As part of the project, which is funded by the DAAD, a German-Japanese research group is investigating current developments in consumer protection in the platform economy. The project focuses on the investigation of possible regulatory transfers between the EU and Japan in the area of platform regulation.

Gastvorlesung von Professor Kunihiro Nakata aus Kyoto

New opening hours!

At the request of the students, the opening hours of the research library in the ELSI will be extended: the library will now open at 8:00 am and close at 6:00 pm. The opening hours will apply from Monday to Friday from 24.11.2025.

Christian von Bar Price-2025

The winner of the Christian von Bar Prize 2025 is Nine Riis, University of Copenhagen. She receives the prize for her dissertation entitled "Defective Data? A comparative analysis of quality and usability obligations in B2B data contracts". The award ceremony will take place on 12.11.2025 at 17:30 in the European Legal Studies Institute in lecture hall E03. Afterwards, as part of the ELSI Lectures series, Professor Bea Verschraegen will give a lecture at 18:30 on the topic "AI & Copyright. An International Perspective". We look forward to welcoming many guests!

Program (PDF, 1.95 MB)

Two Lectures held by Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Christian von Bar

In two lectures designed primarily for foreign students (3.12.2025 and 14.1.2026, each from 16h s.t. to 17.30h in the European Legal Studies Institute, lecture hall 44/E04), basic questions of non-contractual liability law (3.12.) and property law (14.1.) of the Member States of the European Union will be discussed from a comparative law perspective. In these two lectures, Professor von Bar will draw on two of his research projects on European Tort Law and European Property Law.

Osnabrück delegation at the GJZ conference

The annual conference of the Gesellschaft junge Zivilrechtswissenschaft (GJZ) took place at EBS Law School this year under the overarching theme of "Blind Spots in Civil Law".

A large number of young academics from our schools were also present and covered a wide range of topics in six brilliant lightning talks by Patricia Kainka, Leo Kohz, Colin Partington, Philip Steitz, Tabea Stolte and Geelke Wemjes, among others: from pandect science to rainbow families and digital law.

After the GJZ is before the GJZ: we are now looking forward to the next annual conference, which will be held at Osnabrück University from September 23-26, 2026 for the first time since 2009. Save the date!