Community and International Commercial Law
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 the 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 anti-dumping 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) The fifth topic concerns the protection of intellectual property rights (ipr) and aims at providing 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 be paid to existing international treaties and the involvement of international organisations in this area of law; (6) Finally, the course concludes with European company law and discusses 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). 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.
