Course 2024-2025 a.y.

General part:

• Law and the state.
• National laws and private international law.
• Rules, principles, and (families of) legal systems.
• Civil law and common law.
• European law.
• Private and public law.
• Sources of law.
• Uniform law: the Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG).
• 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 civil liability.
• Property.

• Illustrating the general principles and rules applicable to the most important branches of private law.
• Identifying the main differences in civil and common law of contract, tort, and property.
• Describing the relevant issues related to international contracts.
• Explaining the impact that legal rules can produce in the market and on the behavior of businesses and consumers.

• Using the terminology of civil and common law.
• Assessing legal rules from a social and economic point of view.
• Drawing up a document dealing with legal issues and presenting it orally.

• Face-to-face lectures
• Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
• Exercises (exercises, database, software etc.)
• Case studies /Incidents (traditional, online)
• Group assignments
• Interactive class activities on campus/online (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 multiple-choice questions and open-ended questions. 
  • The program of each partial exams for attending students is comunicated in class.
  • The registered grade is the average between the grades of the two partial exams. For students who actively participate in classes, the average may be increased up to 3/30 points for group assignments.
  • Students failing to pass either of the two partial exams, have to take a general exam, consisting of multiple-choice questions and open-ended questions. 
  • The program of the general exam for attending students is indicated in the section on teaching materials for attending students (see below). Exams are purported to verify that students have achieved a certain knowledge of: the general principles and rules applicable to the most important branches of private law; the main differences between civil law and common law of contract, tort, and property; the relevant issues related to international contracts; and the impact that legal rules can produce in the market and on the behavior of businesses and consumers.
• Group assignments are purported to verify that students have achieved the necessary skills and abilities to: use the terminology of civil and common law; assess legal rules from a social and economic point of view; and draw up a document dealing with legal issues and to present it orally.

• Non-attending students must take two partial exams: partial and end-of-semester. Each of them consists of multiple-choice questions and open-ended questions. The registered grade is the average between the grades of the two partial exams.
• The program of the partial exam for non-attending students is the following: Sirena, Introduction to Private Law, 3nd edn, il Mulino, 2021, Chapters 1–6. The program of the end-of-semester partial exam is the following: P. SIRENA, Introduction to Private Law, 3rd edn, il Mulino, 2021, Chapters 7–11; P. SIRENA, 'The Contracting Parties' Choice of European Soft Law: Its Validity and Limitis', available on the Bboard platform. The parts of the text that are printed in a smaller font and indented, as well as the footnotes can be read for sake of information but must not be covered for evaluation purposes.
• Students failing to pass either of the two partial exams have to take a general exam, consisting of multiple-choice questions and open-ended questions. 
• The program of the general exam for non-attending students is indicated in the section on teaching materials for non-attending students (see below).
• Exams are purpoted to verify that students have achieved the knowledge of: the general principles and rules applicable to the most important branches of private law; the main differences between civil law and common law of contract, tort, and property; the relevant issues related to international contracts; and the impact that legal rules can produce in the market and on the behavior of businesses and consumers.

Attending students are responsible for the teaching material discussed in class and available on the Bboard platform, as well as for the following parts of P. Sirena, Introduction to Private Law, 3rd edn, il Mulino, 2021: Ch. 3, Ch. 4, Ch. 5, Ch. 6, Ch. 7 (paras 1–3.2), Ch. 8, Ch. 9 (only paras 1 and 5), Ch 10 (except for para 4.3), Ch 11. The parts of the text that are printed in a smaller font and indented, as well as the footnotes can be read for sake of information but must not be covered for evaluation purposes.

Non-attending students are responsible for both the following textbooks:

• P. SIRENA, Introduction to Private Law, 3rs edn, il Mulino, 2021, Chapters 1-11. The parts of the text that are printed in a smaller font and indented, as well as the footnotes can be read for sake of information but must not be covered for evaluation purposes.
• P. SIRENA, 'The Contracting Parties' Choice of European Soft Law: Its Validity and Limitis', available on the BBoard platform.