Student guide Faculty of Engineering A.Y. 2010/11

The learning objectives of the course are:
· to provide students with an overview of the essential elements for understanding the principal legal issues that can arise in the running of a business, viewed as the place where the factors of capital and labour come together, and to define the main forms in which a firm can be organised.
· to examine the concrete impact, on a business firm, of the main regulations safeguarding social values (trade union freedoms and activities, particular rights of workers to information and consultation, right to privacy and proper use of personal data, protection of intellectual property and intellectual works)
· to sketch out the guiding principles of the European Union's institutional structure and the main types of regulations issued, and further examine the recent evolution of Community law and trade union relations at the European level, with reference to the social dialogue.

1. The firm as an organic structure disciplined by law
- Possible forms of a business firm, as an individual concern, partnership, or company The partnership contract:
- Powers and responsibilities of the entrepreneur and partners
- The economic/social function of the firm as a centre for collective and individual interests
- Notes on the recent reform of corporate law and its impact on the overall organisation of the firm.
2. Industrial relations and trade union activities. Industrial and labour disputes.
- Principles and actors of industrial relations
- The worker's charter and trade union self-protection actions
- Collective negotiations:
- Social safety nets
- Notes on out-of-court and judicial settlement of disputes
3. Intellectual property and privacy
- Concept of protection of intellectual property. Trademarks, patents and ornamental models
- Inventions of employees
- Right to privacy of personal data and obligations connected with the protection of privacy.
4. Institutional structure of the European Union and sources of Community law. The new forms of worker participation, consultation and information
- Legislative and executive bodies
- Principal regulatory acts and their scope of application
- Notes on the evolution of Community law and the participation of workers at the European level.
- Social dialogue and recent directives on the information and consultation of workers
- European company councils.

Course notes provided by the lecturer.