As a research center at Freie Universität Berlin, FUELS pursues a broad range of approaches to the empirical study of the law, its operation and effects on society. FUELS serves as a platform for different projects and fields, promoting exchange on empirical findings, empirical methods, and on how they relate to other branches of legal scholarship. FUELS also seeks to offer training and advice to legal scholars embarking on empirical research projects in law, including the use of empirical results from (other) social sciences. Projects at FUELS use both quantitative and qualitative empirical methods, including surveys, interviews, court records, experiments, and the analysis of observational data.

FUELS is part of LSC—The Laws of Social Cohesion, a collaborative endeavor with the Law & Society Institute and Recht im Kontext of Humboldt University, funded by the Berlin University Alliance.