Community and International Commercial Law
Course description
The purpose of the course “Community and International commercial law” is to help students to
acquire knowledge and insight in a selected number of key topics belonging to commercial law. The
emphasis is on EU commercial law. The course is taught entirely in English, and therefore a basic
knowledge of this language is required in order to conclude the course successfully. After a brief
discussion of the core principles of the EU legal system, e.g. direct effect/supremacy, the division of
competences and judicial review (1), the course will treat the following subjects: (2) The creation
and functioning of the customs union and internal market with emphasis on free movement of
goods and services, and freedom of establishment (companies); (3) Competition law focuses on the
cartel prohibition, dominant position, state aid and mergers; (4) The fourth topic regards the
different aspects of European commercial law among which trade defence mechanisms such as antidumping and anti-subsidy measures, the EU trade agreements with third countries and its
involvement in the WTO. Particular attention is paid to the legal underpinnings of the WTO system;
(5) European company law focuses on issues such as corporate establishment, cross border
acquisitions, company law harmonisation and in particular the legal figure of the European
company (SE) and the European co-operative society (SCE); (6) Finally, the course concludes with
EU intellectual property law (ipr). The aim is to provide students with a basic knowledge of the
principle of exhaustion, the different types of ipr protection and the problem of counterfeiting goods
and piracy. Attention shall also be paid to existing international treaties and the involvement of
international organisations in this area of law.
The course consists in a combination of lectures and seminars. In the seminars students will be
required to solve legal (invented) cases, analyse case law and answer questions on the basis of the
course materials and lectures.
Date, time and place of lectures/seminars
Classes (lectures/seminars) will be kept each Tuesday and Thursday in the period between 20
February till 20 May 2011.
Time and place:
- Ferrara: Tuesday 14.30-16.30 aula 11 - via Guarini, Thursday 14.30-16.30 aula 5 - Corso
Ercole I°d'Este, 37.
- Rovigo: Tuesday and Thursday 11-13, aula 8 - Viale Marconi 2.
No lectures are scheduled at the following dates:
-
1 and 3 March
8 March (martedi grasso)
21 and 26 April Eastern holiday (Pasqua)
Language and teaching methods
The course consists in lectures and seminars. In the lectures the different topics and their mutual
relationships will be discussed. In the seminars students are asked to analyse case law, answer
general questions and questions related to (invented) legal cases (assignments). The assignments,
which must be prepared at home, will be made available beforehand at the lecture or on the miniweb site of the course.
The language used in the course is English. A good knowledge of the English language is required in
order to follow the course.
Attendance and final grade
Students are highly recommended to follow all lectures and seminars. Regular attendance,
satisfactory preparation and active participation in class are elements that may influence positively
the final grade. The oral examination grade can be upgraded in case
attendance/preparation/participation has been evaluated positively by the lecturer. In case students
are prevented from attendance/preparation on a systematic basis, they need to inform the lecturer.
Materials
This course does not use a manual but a reader which has been created especially for this course
only. This reader contains extracts of texts taken from legal manuals and journal articles. It is made
available for copying at both the law library suited in Ferrara (Via Ercole I d’Este 37) and Rovigo.
Ask the librarian for assistance.
Students are required to copy the relevant parts of the EU Treaties (take the consolidated version as
amended by the Lisbon Treaty). They can download the Treaties from the internet at:
http://europa.eu/lisbon_treaty/full_text/index_en.htm
Alternatively they can order on internet or from the legal bookshop “Arianuova”: “Oxford,
Blackstone’s EU treaties” or any alternative edition of the EU Treaties.
Information about the European Union on the Internet can be found via the site of the Europaserver: http://europa.eu/. Information about the internal market, intellectual property rights,
competition law, company law, CCP can be found on the site of relevant Departments (DGs) of the
Commission: http://ec.europa.eu/index_en.htm. The judgements of the Court of Justice and the
Court of First Instance (General Court) can be found on the next site:
http://curia.eu.int//en/index.htm.
IMPORTANT: Final Course Programme
The final course programme will be uploaded on the mini website of this course:
http://www.unife.it/giurisprudenza/giurisprudenza/studiare/Community%20and%20International%2
0Commercial%20law (Ferrara);
http://www.unife.it/giurisprudenza/giurisprudenza-magistrale-rovigo/studiare/community (Rovigo)
This programme will provide more detailed information about the exact topics of each
lecture/seminar and the relevant materials that need to be studied.
The mini website shall also be used for all communications regarding the course.
Details Lecturer
Available on the mini website (contact details, date and hour for receiving students).
Exam Dates
- 26 May 2011
- 9 and 23 June
- 14 July
- 1 and 22 September
XXX
Scheme and compulsory literature (status: provisional)
1. Introduction to course and selected topics of European institutional law
Lectures/seminars on: 22 and 24 February and 10 March.
Prescribed literature:
P. 1- 17
M. Horspool, M. Humprheys, European Union Law, sixth edition, 2010 Oxford
University Press (selected pages).
P. 18- 47
E. Szyszczak, A. Cygan, Understanding EU Law, second editions, 2008 Thomson
Sweet & Maxwell (selected pages).
2. Internal Market
Lectures/seminars on : 15, 17, 22 and 24 March.
Prescribed literature:
P. 48-81
N. Foster, EU Law Directions, second edition, 2010 Oxford University Press
(selected parts).
P. 82-84
N. Foster, Foster on EU law, second edition 2006 Oxford University Press
(selected parts).
P. 85-90
D. Chalmers, G. Davies, G. Monti, European Union Law, Cambridge. Cambridge
University Press 2010, “The Service Directive”, p. 823-828.
3 Competition Law
Lectures/seminars on: 29 and 31 March; 5 and 7 April.
Prescribed literature:
P. 91-119
M. Horspool, M. Humprheys, European Union Law, sixth edition, 2010 Oxford
University Press (selected pages from Chapter 14 competition law and policy).
4. Common Commercial Policy and WTO
Lectures/seminars on: 12, 14 and 19 April.
Prescribed literature:
P. 120- 131
P. Eeckhout, “Common Commercial Policy”, in: External Relations in the European
Union: Legal and Constitutional Foundations, 2004, p. 348-367.
P. 132-138
M. Bungenberg, The Common Commercial Policy after Lisbon, paper presented at
the Hebrew University Jerusalem, 14 July 2008, p. 1-15 (excluded part on foreign
direct investment).
(literature will be added on WTO and Hormone case)
5. European Company law
Lectures/seminars on: 28 April; 3 and 5 May.
Prescribed literature:
P. 139- 160
Wyatt & Dashwood’s, European Union Law, fifth edition (2006), Chapter 20
Corporate Establishment, Cross Border Acquisitions, Company law harmonisation,
and the effect of national tax rules on the internal market (extracts), p. 837- 851 and
p. 863- p. 886.
P. 161- 168
A. Dorresteijn, T. Monteiro, C. Teichmann and E. Werlauff (eds.), European
Corporate Law, second edition, 2009 (selected parts).
Report of the Commission to the EP and the Council on the application of Regulation 2157/2001 of
8 October 2001 on the Statute for a European Company, COM (2010) 676, 17.11.2010. (at:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu, search term: “Report European Company”)
6. European Intellectual Property Law
Lectures/seminars on: 10, 12 and 17 May.
Prescribed literature:
(literature will be added)
7. Extra lecture on specific course topic
Lecture on 19 May. Topic to be decided.