L82730 European contract law

At the end of the course the student will be able:

1. to pinpoint the rules governing contracts within the European Union;
2. to cope with the main issues concerning contractual matters, with special reference to sale contracts.

This course aims at providing students with a thorough understanding of the complex system of rules governing contracts within the European Union. This will be achieved by analysing the acts already adopted by the European Union in matters of contracts, with special focus on sale contracts, and the recent EU proposals for a common European contract and sales Law. In a global perspective, a comparison with existing international instruments in the same field will also be proposed.

Starting from some preliminary remarks on the power of the European Union to regulate private law and the role of the Internal Market goal and different models of market integration in the development of a body of a European contract law, the course will provide a general overview of the existing rules enacted by the European Union in contractual matters, both from a substantive and a private international law perspective, and a detailed coverage of some of the main acts governing business and consumer sales within the European Union. Due consideration will also be given to the recent 2011 Proposal for a Regulation on a Common European Sales Law (CESL) in comparison with other international instruments in the field, such as the 1980 Vienna Convention on the International Sales of Goods. Relevant case-law will also be examined.

The course will run under a workshop format requiring active students’ involvement. Lectures are held throughout the entire semester. Students are responsible for learning the material before coming to class and for providing a meaningful contribution to the discussion led by the instructor.

In preparing for lectures students are required to know any detail of the required readings.

Students are responsible for consulting on a regular basis the website of the course on “my.liuc.it” where updates, additional material and slides about the course are posted.

For students attending classes, grade is based on class participation and on the presentation of the case studies proposed by the teacher. All other students should pass an oral examination.