INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND PRIVATE INTERNATIONAL LAW

Module INTERNATIONAL LAW ON TRADE AND FOREIGN INVESTMENTS

This course aims at providing students with an adequate knowledge of the material and procedural principles and rules of international law on trade and investments as well as of private and procedural international law, with particular reference to the relevant legal categories and relationships for internationalization of firms.

Academic teaching with a progressive interaction with students, also based upon a case-law analysis.

Knowledge of the fundamental notions of international law, particularly of law of treaties, and private law.

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Historical evolution of international trade relations (GATT-WTO). The World Trade Organization (WTO): purposes and organizational structure, new issues and future perspectives. The sources of the WTO legal system and their relationship with domestic legal systems of Member States. The basic legal principles: non-discrimination (Most-Favoured-Nation Treatment and National Treatment), the reciprocity principle. The regional trade agreements. The general exceptions to the principles of the WTO legal system. Basic features of: Trade in goods, Non-tariff barriers to trade, Anti-dumping and subsidies, the General Agreement on Trade in Services (G.A.T.S.), and the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs). Settlement of disputes. Sources of international law in the field of foreign investments and their relationship with the domestic legal systems. Principles and rules of customary international law on the protection of aliens and their economic interests. The diplomatic protection. Bilateral treaties on reciprocal promotion and protection of foreign investments (BITs). The settlement of investment disputes: the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (I.C.S.I.D.), applicable law and autonomy of the parties (the stabilization clauses in investment contracts). The insurance guarantee of foreign investments: The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (M.I.G.A.) and the most important domestic systems.

1. VAN DEN BOSSCHE P., PREVOST D., Essentials of WTO Law, Cambridge, 2021; 2. CHOUKROUNE L., NEDUMPARA J. J., International Economic Law: Text, Cases and Materials, Cambridge, 2021, pp. 455-644; 3. FARUQUE A., Validity and Efficacy of Stabilisation Clauses. Legal Protection vs. Functional Value, in Journal of International Arbitration, 2006, 4, pp. 317-336.

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