Law

Chair for Private Law & Blockchain

The Chair for Private Law & Blockchain examines how blockchain technologies affect contracts, property rights, and commercial transactions. Research focuses on the challenges and opportunities blockchain introduces for private legal relationships in a digital society.

What happens to private law when digitalisation, blockchain, and smart contracts transform how companies, associations, and foundations operate? The Chair for Private Law & Blockchain at ZIBR investigates the legal implications of decentralised technologies for governance, responsibility, and compliance. This research explores how blockchain intersects with company law, foundation law, and the law of associations, as well as with the broader digital economy and issues of responsible business conduct.
Blockchain and the Digital Economy
Smart contracts, blockchain-based transactions, and artificial intelligence pose new challenges for private law. The chair examines how legal frameworks must adapt to govern digital economies while ensuring security, fairness, and enforceability.
Corporate and Capital Market Law
Digitalisation is reshaping corporate structures and capital markets. The chair investigates how company law, securities regulation, and compliance frameworks need to evolve to address emerging risks and opportunities in blockchain-based ecosystems.
Foundations, Philanthropy, and Governance
Research also focuses on associations, foundations, and non-profit organisations, exploring how blockchain and digitalisation affect governance, accountability, and the pursuit of social good. Topics include corporate philanthropy, responsible business conduct, and compliance in an era of digital transformation.

This chair explores how private law must evolve when blockchain, smart contracts, and digitalisation transform corporations, foundations, and markets.

Ass.-Prof. Dr. Claude Humbel
Assistant Professor for Private Law and Blockchain
Get to know the Chair
The Chair for Private Law & Blockchain works to deepen the academic and practical understanding of how decentralized technologies affect private legal systems. Its research informs policymakers, businesses, and non-profits on governance, responsibility, and compliance in the digital age.