Research at the Institute does not focus on private law in isolation but rather within the overall framework for private, in particular business behavior. This brings about questions of legal doctrine and legal policy which have to be assessed in the context of other legal fields as well. A topic of paramount theoretical and practical importance is the interaction between private law and public law as it is well known from the interdependence between freedom of contract on the one hand and tax legislation on the other hand. A policy-oriented research topic is the alternative between private law statutes and public law rules when it comes to optimal steering of market processes. Moreover, substantive elements of the private legal order are examined, e. g. the relevance of the “information model” as opposed to mandatory requirements. A further-reaching perspective encompasses the European framework emerging from current work on a pan-European private law.