Against the backdrop of market-oriented European integration, the Institute’s focus in the late 1970s increasingly turns to issues of commercial and business law as well as the process of economic transformation. Accordingly, business law and competition law become new areas of emphasis. In 1983, Mestmäcker launches a sweeping project on the law and economics of international telecommunications. The project combines comparative law and economic analysis and addresses the anticipated liberalization of national telecommunication markets.

Hein Kötz concentrates on the conceptual foundations of comparative law and publishes several studies in this field. An Introduction to Comparative Law, written by Kötz with Konrad Zweigert and first published in 1969, becomes a standard international reference work. Subsequently, Kötz authors a textbook on European contract law. His many functions in national and international academia further enhance the profile of the Institute as a key outpost of legal research.

Drobnig’s work on the legal systems of central and eastern Europe serves as a bridge between socialist and capitalist legal concepts. After the fall of the Iron Curtain, the Institute consults on the legislative reform efforts of the former Eastern bloc states. With the increasing number and significance of European Union legal instruments in the area of private international law, the Europeanization of the legal field becomes a prominent, cross-cutting topic of Institute research.