Barbara Graham-Siegenthaler joined the Faculty of Law team at the University of Lucerne in the autumn of 2016. Her research interests cover a broad range of topics, and her research specialities lie in private law, in particular property law along with personal, inheritance, association and foundation law, in securities law and in family and child law. She tackles interdisciplinary issues having points of contact with international law, the Code of Obligations and procedural law, as well as topics associated with comparative law.

Barbara Graham-Siegenthaler’s publications cover the Swiss Civil Code as well as topics of comparative law and international private law. In the area of property law, she has investigated the topic of comparative law and international private law on the topic of ‘Collateral Security Law in International Legal Relations’. Many of her publications tackle the topic of collateral security using mobile goods and receivables, as well as securities law. She contributed to the ‘Handkommentar zum Schweizer Privatrecht’ commentary on Swiss private law in the fields of inheritance law, property law and international private law, and she wrote the international inheritance law section of the commentary on inheritance law. She commented on contractual provisions in the liability commentary, and on stock corporation law provisions in the commentary on the Code of Obligations. Barbara Graham-Siegenthaler’s publications also examine other topics of civil law and civil procedural law.

Her thesis on international family law was awarded the Janggen Prize. Several of her publications tackle international family law. Barbara Graham-Siegenthaler completed her ‘Habilitation’ postdoctoral qualification at the University of Zurich, where she obtained her Venia Legendi in Swiss and international private law, comparative law, and debt collection and bankruptcy law. Her postdoctoral thesis examined a topic at the intersection between property law, the Code of Obligations, procedural law and insolvency law.

As part of her teaching activities at the University of Lucerne, Barbara Graham-Siegenthaler lectures in property law and provides tutorials private law as well as in the Introduction to Swiss Law course (given in English). Barbara Graham-Siegenthaler gives seminars in private law. Supervising master’s theses is very important to her.

She is part of a Federal Office of Justice working group in the field of civil law, and prepares legal opinions in the same field. She has also been involved in US legal proceedings as a Swiss expert, and worked as an expert at UNCITRAL in New York.