• Explain International commercial legislation and case law;
• Explain businesses’ legal position under international commercial law
• Identify relevant international commercial problems and legal arguments on basis of complex materials;
• demonstrate ability to deal with cases and demonstrate overview, insight and understanding;
• Analyse problems in international commercial law and provide solutions on the basis of legal arguments and a critical evaluation;
• Ability to combine various professional attitudes in connection with the analysis and make choices for the various, possible solutions; and
• Present solutions and arguments in a systematic and coherent manner demonstrating overview, insight and understanding for the problems facing international businesses and the law regulating the sector.

Content and structure: International Commercial Law is taught in English, and the literature used is in English as this is the language the commercial lawyer or manager uses during international contract negotiations and international commercial arbitration. However, fluency in English is not required.

Due to globalisation, it is essential for commercial lawyers and managers to acquire a thorough knowledge of international contract law and international commercial arbitration. Furthermore, with this knowledge businesses will be able to put themselves into the best possible strategic position when negotiating, drafting and performing international contracts and when settling disputes arising out of such contracts.

The course objective is to provide students with a detailed knowledge of International Contract Law and International Commercial Arbitration in order to enable students to negotiate and draft international contracts on outsourcing and sale of goods and provision of services and to enable students to solve by means of arbitration disputes arising out of such international commercial contracts.

In the part dealing with international contracts, focus is on the negotiation process, the drafting of contracts, the performance of the contract, remedies for breach of contracts and dispute-settlement clauses such as choice-of-law clauses, jurisdiction agreements and arbitration agreements. The legislative basis is the United Nations Convention for the International Sales of Goods (CISG) and the lex mercatoria as expressed through principles of international contract law such as the Unidroit Principles for International Commercial Contracts (Unidroit Principles) and the Principles of European Contract Law (PECL).

In the second part dealing with international commercial arbitration, emphasis is on different forms of arbitration (ad hoc and institutional arbitration), the drafting of arbitration agreements, the conduct of arbitration proceedings, choice of law, invalidity of arbitral awards and recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards. The legislative basis is UNCITRAL’s Model Law for International Commercial Arbitration, UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules, the New York Convention on Recognition and Enforcement of Arbitral Awards and the rules of procedure of the most well-known international arbitration institutions.

Teaching: Lectures, seminars, exercises and cases. During lectures, an overview of the general rules and principles will be given. The purpose of seminars, exercises and cases is to discuss and apply the general rules and principles to real situations. Students are expected to be well-prepared and participate actively in class.

Recommended literature (subject to change):

Joseph Lookofsky, Understanding the CISG, paperback, 5 ed 2017

Redfern and Hunter, International arbitration, paperback, 6 ed 2015

Materials on Canvas

The required readings are approximately 500 pages.