INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND PRIVATE INTERNATIONAL LAW

Learning Objectives

• The WTO Legal System
  This module aims at providing students with the knowledge of the set of rules regarding international trade, with particular regard to the structure and functioning of the World Trade Organization, the multilateral material principles and rules governing international trade, the consequences deriving from their violation and the settlement of disputes system in this area.
• INTERNATIONAL LAW ON FOREIGN INVESTMENTS
  This module aims at providing students with the knowledge of international rules on foreign investments, with particular regard to international customary principles and conventional rules governing the sector of foreign investments, consequences deriving from their violation and methods of settling related disputes.
• Conflict of Jurisdictions and Conflict of Laws: General Issues
  This module aims at providing students with the knowledge of general issues regarding the coordination between jurisdictions and material laws of different State as well as the rules which, at different levels and in different sectors, govern such general issues.
• The applicable Law to Commercial Companies, Contractual and Non-Contractual Obligations
  This module aims at providing students with the knowledge of the rules determining the law applicable to legal categories and relationships which are material for the process of internationalization of firms.

Detailed Course Content

• The WTO Legal System

  Organizational and legal structure of the World Trade Organization. The WTO and domestic legal systems. Regional integration agreements. The basic legal principles: non-discrimination (Most-Favoured-Nation Treatment and National Treatment), reciprocity and related general exceptions. Basic features of: Trade in goods, Non-tariff barriers to trade, Anti-dumping and subsidies, General Agreement on Trade in Services (G.A.T.S.), and Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs). Settlement of disputes. New issues and new perspectives in WTO system.

• INTERNATIONAL LAW ON FOREIGN INVESTMENTS
  Sources of law in the field of foreign investments. Principles and rules of customary international law on the protection of foreign investments. The diplomatic protection. Bilateral treaties on reciprocal promotion and protection of foreign investments. The settlement of investment disputes: the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (I.C.S.I.D.), applicable law and autonomy of the parties (the stabilization clauses in international contracts). The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (M.I.G.A.).
• Conflict of Jurisdictions and Conflict of Laws: General Issues

  The basic problems underlying conflict of jurisdictions and conflict of laws. Sources of Procedural and Private International Law. Conflict of Jurisdictions: jurisdiction in “transnational” cases, recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments (Italian Law no. 218 of 31 May 1995; EU Regulation no. 1215/2012); international commercial arbitration (New York Convention of 10 June 1958 on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards). Conflict of Laws – General Issues: structure and purpose of choice-of-law rules; connecting factors and their possible combinations; characterization; preliminary questions; renvoi; knowledge, interpretation and application of foreign law; non-unified foreign legal systems; public policy (“ordre public”); mandatory rules; the principle of reciprocity.

• The applicable Law to Commercial Companies, Contractual and Non-Contractual Obligations

  The law applicable to legal capacity and capacity to act. The law applicable to companies and legal entities. The law applicable to property and intellectual property rights. The EU uniform rules on the law applicable to contractual and non-contractual obligations (Regulation no. 593/2008 and Regulation no. 864/2007).