Research programmes
The four research programmes of Radboud Business Law Institute are:
- Business and Patrimonial Law
- Company Law
- Finance, Security Rights and Insolvency Law
- Financial Law
Business and Patrimonial Law involves our research into those parts of the law of obligations and property law that are important to the operations of businesses. This includes labour law, pension law (asset management) and private law aspects of modern technologies. The programme aims at defining the scope of patrimonial law in a commercial context and is the foundation of the three other research programmes. It is more fundamental in nature and can be less business-oriented at first sight. This means that fundamental principles and legal concepts of broader patrimonial law are given extensive attention in order to gain a deeper understanding of more business-oriented topics. The programme functions as an incubator for more general and societal research themes, such as cyber security, data protection and digitalization, which ultimately can have an impact on the other research programmes.
The programme supervisors are:
Prof. S.E. (Steven) Bartels and prof. C.J.M. (Carla) Klaassen
The Company Law programme focuses on the ways in which companies come into existence, operate and work together. The central themes are corporate governance and corporate litigation, comprising for example the various legal forms of companies, liability and representation, corporate aspects of the financing of their business operations and the resolution of disputes between companies and their stakeholders.
The programme supervisors are:
Prof. C.D.J. (Claartje) Bulten and prof. J.B.S. (Steven) Hijink
The Finance, Security Rights and Insolvency Law programme covers two research areas that are closely connected. Research into financing and security rights is mainly concerned with the analysis of the different ways in which businesses are funding their operations and the different types of instruments that are available for securing credit. This involves security rights like pledge, mortgage, retention of title, financial collateral, but also specific financing arrangements such as leasing, factoring, securitisation and covered bonds. Research in the field of insolvency law focuses on companies in financial distress and their options for a restructuring or a winding-up.
The programme supervisors are :
Prof. P.M. (Michael) Veder and prof. B.A. (Ben) Schuijling
The Financial Law programme engages the law related to banking and the issuance and trading of securities, as well as the regulation of the behaviour of financial institutions on the financial markets, such as banks, insurers and pension funds. The key themes of this programme are the regulation and operation of capital markets, investor protection, supervision, symmetry of information, admission to the markets and liability issues. Research in financial law has a strong cross-border and functional focus. It combines elements of civil law, European Union law, criminal law and administrative law.
The programme supervisors are:
Prof. D. (Danny) Busch and prof. S.N. (Seraina) Grünewald