Course 2020-2021 a.y.

General part

• The Western legal tradition: cultural and historical backgrounds
• The aims and methodology of comparative law
• The families of legal systems
• The ‘common core’ of European private law: the Principles of European Contract Law (PECL) and the Draft Common Frame of Reference (DCFR). The projects of a European civil code.
• Sources of uniform private law, particularly the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts (PICC) and the Convention on Contracts for the International Sales of Goods (CISG)

Special part

• Comparative contract law
• Comparative tort law
• Comparative law of unjustified enrichment

• Correctly identify the main features of the legal systems belonging to the Western legal tradition
• Understand the perspectives of a codification of European private law
• Describe the legal instruments directed to apply foreign private law, uniform private law and the principles of European law in contract drafting, litigation and arbitrations

• Assess costs and benefits in applying foreign private law, uniform law and the principles of European law, compared to domestic law
• Consult the sources of foreign private law, uniform private law and European private law while conducting a research of statutes, cases and academic literature
• Draft and present memoranda predicting the outcomes of a case between legal systems and explain such outcomes

• Face-to-face lectures
• Online lectures
• Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
• Exercises (exercises, database, software etc.)
• Case studies /Incidents (traditional, online)
• Individual assignments
• Group assignments
• Interactive class activities (role playing, business game, simulation, online forum, instant polls)

• Guest speakers will speak about their own field of expertise in class or give separate lectures. 
• Exercises will involve research of printed and/or electronic legal resources.
• Case studies will be illustrated and discussed in class.
• Group assignments will consist in drawing up a memorandum supported by a PwP presentation.
• Interactive class activities will consist in discussing memoranda and peer evaluating them.

Attending students must take two partial exams: partial and end-of-semester. Each of them consists of 27 multiple choice questions and 2 open ended questions.

The registered grade is the average between the grades of the two partial exams.

The programme of each partial exams for attending students will be communicated in class.

For students who actively participate in classes, the average may be increased by 3/30 points.

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.

Exams are aimed to verify that students have achieved a solid understanding of the main features of foreign and uniform private law and have become familiar with the principles of European private law.

Non-attending students must take two partial exams: partial and end-of-semester. Each of them consists of 27 multiple choice questions and 2 open ended questions.

The registered grade is the average between the grades of the two partial exams.

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.

Exams are aimed to verify that students have achieved a solid understanding of the main features of foreign and uniform private law and become familiar with the principles of European private law.

• P. SIRENA, Introduction to Private Law (2nd edn, il Mulino 2020): chapters I-IV, chapters VI-VII, paragraphs 2-3 of chapter VIII. The parts of the text that are printed in a smaller font and indented can be read for sake of information but must not be covered for assessment purposes. The same applies to footnotes.
• Materials drawn from J. GORDLEY, H. JIANG, A.T. VON MEHREN, An Introduction to the Comparative Study of Private Law: Readings, cases, materials (forthcoming), which students will have access to on e-learning platform upon the start of the course.

• P. SIRENA, Introduction to Private Law (2nd edn, il Mulino 2020). The parts of the text that are printed in a smaller font and indented can be read for sake of information but must not be covered for evaluation purposes. The same applies to footnotes.
• Materials drawn from J. GORDLEY, H. JIANG, A.T. VON MEHREN, An Introduction to the Comparative Study of Private Law: Readings, cases, materials (forthcoming), which students will have access to on e-learning platform upon the start of the course.