Course 2018-2019 a.y.

General part:

• Law and economics.
• Law and the state.
• National and international (private) law.
• Rules, principles, (families of) legal systems.
• Civil law and common law.
• European law.
• Private and public law.
• Sources of law.
• Soft law and trends of supranational law: principles of European Contract law (PECL), Draft Common Frame of Reference (DCFR), UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts (PICC).

Special part:

• Natural persons and legal entities.
• Contracts.
• Consumer protection.
• Torts and unjustified enrichment.
• Property.
• Remedies and settling of disputes.

• Recognize the basic principles and rules applicable to the most important branches of private law.
• Identify the main differences between civil law and common law in the areas of contract, tort and property law.
• Discuss the relevant issues related to international contracts and alternative dispute resolutions.
• Explain the impact that legal rules can produce in the market and their influence on the behavior of businesses and consumers.

• Use the terminology pertaining to private law both in the civil law and in the common law legal tradition.
• Appraise and critique juridical solutions and judgments from a social and economic point of view.
• Demonstrate organizational and teamwork abilities as well as presentation and communication skills.

• Face-to-face lectures
• Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
• Group assignments

The subjects of the course are addressed through a cooperative dialogue between teachers and students, consisting in asking and answering questions and participating in a discussion. Students learn to tackle legal problems by using a correct terminology and expressing critical reasoning, based on juridical arguments and economic analysis of law. The classes get started with the analysis of real-life cases, selected from civil law and common law precedents. B-clickers are used for instant polls. The active participation in classes are considered for the overall student assessment. The learning experience of the course includes a ‘Legal advice competition’, carried out through a group assignment. A preliminary class is held by a guest speaker, who illustrates a case. Students are divided in small groups of four/five and have the task of submitting a legal advice and a power-point presentation that summarize their main findings. The legal advices and the power-point presentations are used for student assessment as well as a basis for further discussions of the case in class.

Attending and non-attending students must take two partial exams (the first is partial, the other final), each of them consisting of 27 multiple choice questions and 2 open ended questions. The candidates are requested to give the one most appropriate answer, which corresponds to 1/30 for each multiple choice question and up to 2/30 for each open ended question. No penalty is foreseen for wrong or incomplete answers. The registered grade is the average between the marks of the two written tests. For students who actively participate in classes, including group assignments, the average is increased up to 3/30. Students failing to pass either of the two partial exams have to take a general exam, consisting of 27 multiple choice questions and 2 open ended questions. The candidates are requested to give the one most appropriate answer, which corresponds to 1/30 for each multiple choice question and up to 2/30 for each open ended question. No penalty is foreseen for wrong or incomplete answers. For attending students, questions deal with the textbook, as well as with the teaching material uploaded in the e-learning area and discussed in class. For non-attending students, questions deal with the textbook.

Selected chapters of:

• P. SIRENA, Introduction to the Legal System, to be published in 2019.

Materials are delivered during classes and made available in the e-learning area of the Bocconi portal. Lectures are recommended .

• P. SIRENA, Introduction to the Legal System, to be published in 2019.

Alternatively,

• G. IUDICA, P. ZATTI (ed. by A. SCARSO), Language and Rules of Italian private Law. An Introduction, Padua, latest edition.