Student guide Facoltà di Giurisprudenza A.A. 2005/06

Bank and insurance law and regulation have received remarkably scant attention from the European legislators and from academic lawyers: the aim of the course is consequently to introduce students to the core principles and institutions of insurance in a European perspective, with an emphasis on the economic and social underpinnings of bank and insurance institution and more in general the breaking of boundaries in the financial services markets.

The course shall first analyse the legal framework for financial services in order to present a topical and historical overview of the existing regulation and the creation of the Single European Market for Financial Services  based on the principles of the so called Single Passport and Home Country Control for insurance and bank companies. General principles of contract law and intermediaries regulations will then be discussed, with specific reference to the following topics:

 

1.   Third EC Directives and the creation of the Single Market of financial services.

2.   Control authorities and regulations.

3.   The harmonisation of insurance contract law in Europe.

4.   Unfair contract terms in bank and insurance contracts.

5.   Special lines of insurance: i.e. liability and motor insurance and the related European Directives.

6.   The regulatory framework for distance selling of financial services.

7.   Bancassurance, assurbanque and assurfinance in Europe.

The student will be required to prepare a final paper and to discuss it with the professor.