The Department of European and Comparative Civil Procedural Law addresses the whole range of judicial and extrajudicial settlement of civil law disputes, as well as the differentiation of dispute resolution (e.g. in family law, in consumer protection, and in collective redress). Also as a result of its international composition, this department sees itself initially as a department for comparative civil procedure law. In addition to that, there is a special focus on European civil procedure law, on the one hand on cross-border cases within the scope of application of Article 81 TFEU, on the other hand on the influences and requirements of EU law vis-à-vis national procedural laws. Another field of research concerns the interfaces between the structure of the judiciary (especially questions related to institutional aspects and to professional law) and the settlement of disputes – for example the competing influence of private and state actors in the area of arbitration and (consumer) mediation. Finally, the procedural law of the ECJ and of the other European courts in Luxembourg is of particular importance, especially with regard to the differentiation of the procedures against the background of the different functions of these judicial institutions.