The Research Unit of Law focuses its research on the legal foundations and instruments for sustainable planning and construction as well as for a mobility transition. We investigate where the legal structures form obstacles to these transformation processes and how these can be adapted; in other words, generally how law can be used as an instrument to realise social and ecological goals in these areas. Our research topics include: the use of the civil contract as a planning instrument of the public sector; public procurement as an instrument for social, ecological and innovative procurement; the involvement of external technical experts in planning processes of legislation and administration and its democratic legitimisation; legal instruments for the implementation of energy efficiency in the building sector and in neighbourhoods; public participation in planning processes; the regulation of the real estate market and the provision of social housing as well as general questions of property guarantees in the context of the necessary transformation processes.