About the Chair

The University of Fribourg’s German-language Chair of Civil Law has a long and distinguished tradition. Earlier holders of the Chair were Professors Franz Rensing (1891-1894), Hugo Oser (1894-1912), Alfred Siegwart (1912-1944), Hans Jenny (1944-1945), and Peter Jäggi (1945-1975) and Peter Gauch (1975-2006). Under Prof. Jäggi, the Chair taught all aspects of Swiss private law, of which commercial law was one branch. Professer Peter Gauch joined the Faculty of Law at the University of Fribourg in 1973, lecturing first in criminal and civil procedure. Upon Prof. Jäggi’s passing in 1975, Prof. Gauch took over his Chair. For many years he taught both the law of obligations and commercial law, before cutting back on his teaching schedule to concentrate on the law of obligations. In the winter semester of 2006, Prof. Gauch moved to the newly created Chair of Legal Principles and Private Law. It was at this time that Prof. Stöckli, who had served since 2001 as Associate Professor in the Department of Private Law, was appointed to the Chair of Civil and Commercial Law, which he has held since then. Professor Stöckli teaches contract and tort law and is the Director of the Institute of Swiss and International Construction Law. Prof. Stöckli’s interests also include the specialized training of legal professionals. In this context he directs the biennial Swiss conference on construction law, held in Fribourg under the auspices of the Institute for Construction Law and is also the Director of a post-graduate degree program in Construction and Real Estate Law sponsored by the Swiss Bar Association.

• Professor Hubert Stöckli

  Prof. Stöckli was born in the Canton of Zug in 1966. He graduated with a law degree from the University of Fribourg in 1992 and passed the bar and notary examinations of the Canton of Zug in 1994. He received his LLM in Comparative Law from the University of Alabama Law School in 1995, and was a Foreign Associate in the law firm of Bradley Arant in Birmingham, Alabama from 1995 to 1996. Prof. Stöckli was awarded his doctorate from the University of Fribourg in 1999, with a dissertation on anti-trust law in civil law jurisdictions. From 1999 through 2001 he worked as a practicing attorney and conducted research on the law of obligations and public procurement law. From 2001 to 2006, Prof. Stöckli was Associate Professor of Civil and Commercial Law at the University of Fribourg. 2006: His habilitation thesis, “Synallagma in Contract Law” (Zurich 2008), was accepted in 2006 and he was awarded the venia legendi for civil and commercial law. Prof. Stöckli has held the Chair of Civil and Commercial Law at the University of Fribourg since 1 October 2006, at which time he was also named Director of the Friboug law faculty’s Institute for Swiss and International Construction Law. Prof. Stöckli was a Visiting Professor at the East China University of Political Science and Law (ECUPL), Shanghai, during the spring semester of 2011. Since August 2020 Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Fribourg.

  Other activities: Editor of the journal Baurecht/Droit de la construction; Past President of the Swiss Public Procurement Association; Past President of the European Society of Construction Law (2003/2004 and 2016/2017). Director of the Institute for Swiss Construction Law's biennial Swiss conference on construction law; Director of the Swiss Bar Association’s post-graduate degree program in Construction and Real Estate Law.

  Hubert Stöckli lives with his family in Fribourg.

• The Institute of Construction Law

  Professor Peter Gauch had a long-standing interest in questions of private construction law.  In 1979, at his initiative, and with the support of a number of colleagues, also from the domain of public law, the “Seminar for Swiss Construction Law” was founded. It was directed by Prof. Gauch until 1996. In 1997, the “Seminar” underwent a transformation and was renamed the Institute for Swiss and International Construction Law. Today the Institute is led by Professors Jean-Baptiste Zufferey (President of the Institute Board) and Hubert Stöckli (Director). The multi-lingual and interdisciplinary cooperation between them, together with the close involvement of their respective Chairs in the work of the Institute, allows students and researchers to take optimal advantage of the wide range of resources available at the University of Fribourg for the study of construction law.

• Incoming Students

  The Chair of Civil and Commercial law offers students from abroad two possibilities for participating in its programs:

  • Visiting Students:  Students from abroad may enroll as short-term visitors, giving them the opportunity to compare Swiss construction law with the corresponding legal regimes in their home countries.
  • Doctoral Studies: Students from abroad may be eligible for acceptance as doctoral candidates by the Chair of Civil and Commercial Law. Please contact Prof. Hubert Stöckli if you are interested in writing a doctoral dissertation under his advisorship.