Requirements
Achievement requirements for master’s level (10 credits):
Knowledge:
A good understanding of the following topics is required:
- The system of legal sources applicable to international commercial transactions: International conventions, national law, commercial practice and other forms of lex mercatoria. Harmonization of international contract law.
- Structure and interaction with the contract of the legal sources in the various phases of a commercial transaction: negotiations, execution of the contract, financing, performance.
- The main features of formation of contracts, interpretation, the role of good faith and fair dealing, liability and remedies for non-performance in the main legal families (civil law, common law, transnational law).
- Choice of law rules permitting to determine the law that governs the contract.
- The relationship between the contractual regulation and mandatory rules of a law that does not belong to the chosen law, e.g. in the fields of competition, import-export regulation, company law and other areas that affect commercial transactions.
- Dispute resolution: The application of the legal sources by the national courts of law (and rules on choice of forum). International commercial arbitration and application of the legal sources by the international tribunal.
These questions will be illustrated by examples based on typical international transactions. In connection therewith, knowledge of the following topics is required:
- Typical obligations in contracts of sale, licence, agency, transportation, cooperation (equity and non-equity)
- Methods of payment.
Skills
This class contributes to preparing the students to work as an international commercial lawyer, which means i.a. practicing within negotiating and drafting contracts, as well as litigating commercial disputes.
General competence
- Understanding to what extent the parties are free to regulate in their contract their interests without interference from applicable Sources;
- Understanding which sources are applicable to international contracts, and their main characteristics;
- Appreciating the main differences if the applicable sources belong to common law or to civil law systems;
- Understanding the main principles underlying choice of the applicable law;
- Understanding to what extent international arbitration has an approach to applicable sources that differs from the court's approach.
Achievement requirements for bachelor's level (10 credits):
Knowledge
A general understanding of the following topics is required:
- The system of legal sources applicable to international commercial transactions: International conventions, national law, commercial practice and other forms of lex mercatoria. Harmonization of international contract law.
- Structure and interaction with the contract of the legal sources in the various phases of a commercial transaction: negotiations, execution of the contract, financing, performance.
- Choice of law rules permitting to determine the law that governs the contract.
- The relationship between the contractual regulation and mandatory rules of a law that does not belong to the chosen law, e.g. in the fields of competition, import-export regulation, company law and other areas that affect commercial transactions.
- Dispute resolution: The application of the legal sources by the national courts of law (and rules on choice of forum). International commercial arbitration and application of the legal sources by the international tribunal.
These questions will be illustrated by examples based on typical international transactions. In connection therewith, knowledge of the following topics is required:
- Typical obligations in contracts of sale, licence, agency, transportation, cooperation (equity and non-equity),
- Methods of payment.
Skills
This class contributes to preparing the students to work as an international commercial lawyer, which means i.a. practicing within negotiating and drafting contracts, as well as litigating commercial disputes.
General competence
- Understanding to what extent the parties are free to regulate in their contract their interests without interference from applicable Sources;
- Understanding which sources are applicable to international contracts, and their main characteristics;
- Understanding the main principles underlying choice of the applicable law;
- Understanding to what extent international arbitration has an approach to applicable sources that differs from the court's approach.
Literature
Required Reading(hovelitteratur) Bachelor's Level:
Giuditta Cordero-Moss, International Commercial Contracts, Cambridge University Press 2014 (310 pages)
Required main literature: 310 sider.
Required Reading (Hovedlitteratur) Master's Level
Giuditta Cordero-Moss, International Commercial Contracts, Cambridge University Press 2014 (310 pages)
Luca Radicati di Brozolo, Arbitration and the draft revised Brussels I Regulation: seeds of home country control and of harmonization?, 2011: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1895303 (38 pages)
Peter Arnt Nielsen, The new Brussels I Regulation, Common Market Law Review 50, 2013, s. 503-528 (25 pages)
Schlechtriem, P., "Uniform Sales Law - The experience with Uniform Sales Laws in the Federal Republic of Germany", http://www.cisg.law.pace.edu/cisg/biblio/schlech2.html (28 pages)
P.J. Kozyris, Rome II: Tort Conflict on the Right Track! A Postscript to Symeon Symeonides’ “Missed Opportunity”, The American Journal of Comparative Law 2008, s. 471-497 (finnes på Heinonline på bibsys) (25 pages)
Xandra E. Kramer, The Rome II Regulation on the Law Applicable to Non-Contractual Obligations: The European private international law tradition continued, Nederlands Internationaal Privaatrecht (NIPR) 2008, no. 4, s. 414 – 424. (10 pages) http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/14226/2008%20Rome%20II%20Regulation%20-%20NIPR%20(Kramer).pdf
Symeon Symeonides, The American Revolution and the European Evolution in Choice of Law: Reciprocal Lessons, Tulane Law Review, Vol. 82, No. 5, 2008, s. 1-51, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1104284 (50 pages)
Required main literature: 486 sider.
Supplementary Reading (Støttelitteratur)
Bonell, M. J., »An International Restatement of Contract Law», Transnational Publishers Inc., New York 2005
M.J. Bonell, UNIDROIT Principles 2004 - The New Edition of the Principles of International Commercial Contracts adopted by the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (Uniform Law Review 2004, pp. 5-40.)
G. Cordero-Moss, “Boilerplate clauses, international commercial contracts and the governing law”, Cambridge University Press, 2011
Dalhuisen, Jan H, Dalhuisen on Transnational and Comparative Commercial, Financial and Trade Law, Hart Publishing, 2010
De Ly, F., »International Business Law and Lex Mercatoria» North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1992
Fontaine, M., de Ly, F., Drafting International Contracts; Transnational Publishers, 2010 (E-book)
Fox, William F., "International commercial agreements: a primer on drating, negotiating, and resolving disputes", 3rd ed., Kluwer Law International, the Hague, 2009
Goode, R., Kronke, H., McKendrick, E., ”Transnational Commercial Law – Texts, Cases and Materials”, Oxford University Press, 2012
Gorton, Lars, Payments and Financial Security – An Overview, European Business Law Review, Kluwer Law International 2007
Gorton, Lars, Syndicated Loans – Some Thoughts on the Reception of Anglo-American Contract Practice into Swedish Law, European Business Law Review, Kluwer Law International 2007
Hartkamp, Hesselink, Hondius, du Perron, Joustra, editors, "Towards a European Civil Code", Ars Aequi Libri, the Hague, 2011
Van Houtte, Hans, "The Law of International Trade", 2nd edition, 2002, Student Edition, Sweet & Maxwell, London;
Introduction to the Principles of European Contract Law, with further bibliographic references: http://www.cisg.law.pace.edu/cisg/text/peclintro.html
Joint network on European Private Law, with further links: http://www.copecl.org
Lando, O., Beale, H. (Eds), The Principles of European Contract Law Parts I and II, prepared by the Commission on European Contract Law, 1999, Kluwer Law International, Hague, The Netherlands.
Lando, O., Clive, E., Prüm, A., Zimmermann, R. (Eds.) Principles of European Contract Law, Part III 2003, The Hague, London, Boston
Ramberg, J.,"International Commercial Transactions", Kluwer Law International, 2011
Schlechtriem, P., "Uniform Sales Law - the Un-Convention on Contracts for the International Sales of Goods", http://cisgw3.law.pace.edu/cisg/biblio/schlechtriem-04.html
Schlechtriem, P., "Uniform Sales Law - The experience with Uniform Sales Laws in the Federal Republic of Germany", http://www.cisg.law.pace.edu/cisg/biblio/schlech2.html
Schulze, R. (ed), “New Features in Contract Law”, Sellier European Law Publishers, 2009
Wilhelmsson, T., Paunio, E., Pohjolainen, A. (eds.), “Private Law and the Many Cultures of Europe”, Kluwer Law International, 2007