Pre-requirements

International competition law; legal foundations.

Course objectives

The course aims at explaining the general framework of international contracting in the global markets, both at the European and the international level. After introducing the basic concepts, the main actors and the legal sources of international trade, the course will provide students with a general knowledge of the legal dimensions of international contracting. Current practices, case law and arbitral awards will be used to show how to avoid conflicts, decision-making traps and organizational failures in global markets. The course will use the international contract of sale as the reference model, but will also analyze complex contractual relationships in distribution networks, strategic alliances and global value chains. The final part of the course will deal with important aspects of conflict management in international contracts.

• identify the rules applicable to international contracts, having regard to both their origin (national, supranational or private) and their binding or non-binding character;
• understand the factors to be taken into account to choose the best legal structure for a specific international contract or global value chain;
• understand how to read an international contract; 
• identify, for a specific transaction and its regulation, the legal consequences in terms of allocation of risks among the parties, allocation of rights and obligations, distribution of profits; 
• understand the benefits and costs of alternative techniques of conflict management.