The Joseph von Sonnenfels Center
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The Joseph von Sonnenfels Center
The Joseph von Sonnenfels Center for the Economic Analysis of Public Law sees itself as the primary point of contact for those interested in the economic analysis of law from both academia and practice in Austria and was founded by Wolfgang Weigel, former Associate Professor at the University of Vienna, in 2003.
The Joseph von Sonnenfels Center is sustained by the Association for the Promotion of Law and Economics (Verein zur Pflege der Rechtsökonomik) and is currently hosted by the Department of Law at Webster Vienna Private University (WVPU) since October 2025.
At university level, the Joseph von Sonnenfels Center supports and promotes the mentoring of students from various disciplines in the field of “Law and Economics” on both an individual and collective level and advocates for the establishment of more courses and projects in law and economics.
For the wider public, the Joseph von Sonnenfels Center regularly organizes
events, particularly on current socio-political issues, to analyze them from a law and economics perspective and to develop a culture of critical thinking.
The Joseph von Sonnenfels Center addresses, in particular, those problems where legal and economic issues intersect, not only at the national level, but also at supranational and international levels.
Following the tradition of “Law and Economics,” the Joseph von Sonnenfels Center deals with the legal analysis of economic realities, but especially with the economic design of legal norms and regulation in general, in the sense of analyzing legal consequences. The Joseph von Sonnenfels Center’s substantive focus is on public law, specifically constitutional law, administrative law, and regulatory law in general, which is also a peculiarity internationally. Comparable institutions abroad primarily focus on civil law, criminal law, and comparative law. Despite its primary focus on public (regulatory) law, the Joseph von Sonnenfels Center also deals with the various aspects of contract law and contract design as well as a broad range of questions of jurisprudence and legal enforcement.
A new focus of the Joseph von Sonnenfels Center is its research in the area of regulatory theory.
The Association for the Promotion of Law and Economics
Advisory Board:
Professor Steven Shavell, Harvard University Law School
Professor Warren Schwartz (exp), Georgetown University School of Law
Professor Francesco Parisi, University of Minnesota
Professor Daniel Rubinfeld University of California, Berkeley
Professor Boudewijn Bouckaert, Ghent University
Professor Hans-Bernd Schäfer, Bucerius Law School Hamburg
Professor Alfred Endres, Open University of Hagen
Professor Franz Wirl, University of Vienna
Professor Clemens Jabloner, University of Vienna
Attorney Dr. Klaus Kindel, KINDEL & KINDEL Law Firm, Vienna
Professor Anne van Aaken, University of Hamburg
Professor Avishalom Tor, University of Notre Dame, Indiana
Professor Martin Gelter, Fordham University, New York
Board of Directors:
Auditors:
Memberships
The Association for the Promotion of Law and Economics (Verein zur Pflege der Rechtsökonomik) has three categories of members:
• Ordinary members
• Supporting members
• Sponsors
The membership fee for ordinary members is currently EUR 15 per year, and for supporting members EUR 200 per year. Individual agreements exist with sponsors.
The Industrial Association (IV) is an honorary member.
Should you be interested in becoming a member of the Association for the Promotion of Law and Economics (Verein zur Pflege der Rechtsökonomik), please contact us at sonnenfelscenter@webster.ac.at
Current events of the Joseph von Sonnenfels Center include:
• November 12, 2025 at 2 PM CET at WVPU Atrium
Lecture by Wolfgang Weigel: “A Primer on Law and Economics”
The Economic Analysis of Law Seminar, organized by the Law Department at Webster Vienna Private University, with the guest lecturer Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Weigel, N took place on November 12th 2025. In the seminar, Professor Wolfgang Weigel explored the connection between economics and law. The focus of the seminar was to examine the attitudes towards legal constraints, explaining effectiveness and efficiency as well as identification of failures and designed improvements. The lecture introduced the way economics complements legal analysis with practical examples and its relevance in everyday life. Hence, understanding how legal rules influence human behavior and whether they improve social welfare. Therefore, the lecture highlighted how economics, with a focus on cost-benefit analysis, efficiency, costs, and outcomes, complements and integrates with legal analysis. Therefore, the lecture introduced concepts such as cost-benefit analysis, behavioral law and economics, equilibrium, and efficiency to provide a clear picture of how economics intertwines with legal concepts. In fact, the lecture emphasized the growing complexity of legal systems and the need for careful evaluation of policies and their broader effects.
Current events include:
• December 9, 2025 from 11 AM – 5 PM CET at WVPU Atrium
Conference: “Law and Economics at its Best”
Speakers include: Francesco Parisi (online), Hans-Bernd Schäfer, Peter Lewisch
Current events include:
• March 10, 2026 from 5 PM – 7 PM CET at WVPU Atrium
Conference: “Constraining the Behavioral Leviathan”
Speaker: Avishalom Tor
Publications
The Joseph von Sonnenfels Center is the initiator of the so-called “Vienna Series on Law and Economics.”
The Joseph von Sonnenfels Center also maintains an (electronic) “Working Paper Series on Law and Economics.”
Publications on law and economics with the participation of the Joseph von Sonnenfels Center include:
– Weigel / Kammel (2021), Law and Economics of Contracts, Facultas Verlag
– Weigel (2008), Economics of the Law — A Primer, Routledge
The Joseph von Sonnenfels Center is headed by
Dr. Wolfgang Weigel, Chairman
Wolfgang Weigel is the founder and president of the Joseph von Sonnenfels Center and a now retired Associate Professor at the University of Vienna’s Department of Economics.
He is a co-founder of the European Association for Law and Economics and currently a member of its advisory board. He also lectured at Sigmund Freud Private University and the University of Klagenfurt and was a visiting researcher at the Center for Public Choice at George Mason University, Yale Law School, and the University of Hamburg. Until 2018, Wolfgang Weigel was a member of the board and local coordinator for the ERASMUS+ European Master of Law and Economics program.
His research and publications focus on the economics of public administration, the economic theory of politics, and, in particular, the economic analysis of law.
Prof. (FH) Dr. Armin Kammel, LL.M., MBA, Executive Director
Armin Kammel is the Executive Director of the Joseph von Sonnenfels Center and Professor (FH) of Banking Law and Financial Market Regulation at the Lauder Business School (LBS) Vienna. He is also an honorary professor and faculty member at the Department of Law and International Relations at Danube University Krems and a visiting professor at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel. Armin Kammel also holds adjunct faculty positions at California Lutheran University, the University of Graz, and Webster Vienna Private University. He is also a court-certified expert in the field of credit, banking, and stock exchanges.
His research and publications focus on (international) banking and capital markets law and financial market regulation, international economic law with a focus on contract law, regulatory theory, and the economic analysis of law.
Contact Email
Webster Vienna Private University
Joseph von Sonnenfels Center for the Economic Analysis of Public Law
Address
Palais Wenkheim, Praterstrasse 23, 1020, Vienna Austria