Situated at the young Law Faculty of the University of Lucerne the Chairs of Legal Theory, Legal History, Legal Sociology and Legal Philosophy founded in 2004 in cooperation with the Law Faculty the Institute Lucernaiuris. The intended goal of the Institute is to strengthen the interdisciplinary importance of the foundations of law (Legal Theory, Legal History, Legal Sociology, Legal Philosophy and new areas of legal foundations) within Legal Studies and Research.

To reach this goal the Institute offers an innovative contribution to the international networking of these subjects. In a first step Lucernaiuris therefore analyzed the actual situation of the subjects of the foundations of law within the modified curricula of the law faculties of the European Union and Switzerland. The results of this inquiry show that the Bologna-Reform had a great influence on the subjects itself and their presentation within the renewal of the curricula. Due to these facts the new positioning of the foundations of law is one of the great challenges of the future. The subjects of the foundations of law need therefore a strong and institutionalized embedment within the law faculties and the study programs to guarantee the survival of fundamental research and the training of high potential young academics in the steadily changing framework of legal studies.

One of the core competences of Lucernaiuris is therefore to optimize the Bologna-conform knowledge transfer of the involved subjects of the foundations of law by creating new study programs and study contents as well as research opportunities in interdisciplinary cooperation with selected national and international faculties and research institutes. Compared to the mainly defensive strategies of former representatives of the subjects of the foundations of the law in the past, Lucernaiuris wants to highlight and make accessible the potential of these subjects within the new institutionalized framework for all legal sciences. The focus of interest has not only to stress the question «For what at all do we need the subjects of the foundations of law?» but furthermore «How do we have to present them?». That seems to be the appropriate way to make the faculties of law as well as future generations of students aware of the importance of the interdisciplinary linkage of the foundations of law.

Until today no research institution at all specialized on these kinds of questions due to the missing financial support as well as the uncommon research focus. Lucernaiuris wants to close this gap and understands itself as place for open discussions laboratory for new teaching concepts within the subjects of foundations of law