• 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

This course create value from global connections for local communities, as Nordic businnessses – as other businesses – operate on the global market, including the EU. It is therefore essential for businesses to have a profound knowledge of international businesss law and international law, which sets the legal framework for international contracts and international dispute settlement through arbitration and litigation. Students in this course will learn how to ensure that businesses comply with commercial EU law and international commercial law in order to enter into, perform and if necessary enforce international commercial contracts

International Commercial Law is taught in English, and the legal texts and the literature used are in English.

Due to globalisation, it is essential for commercial lawyers and managers to acquire a thorough knowledge of international contract law and international commercial arbitration and litigation. 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 and Litigation in order to enable students to negotiate, draft and perform international contracts on outsourcing and sale of goods and provision of services and to enable students to solve disputes arising out of international commercial contracts through arbitration and litigation.

The first part of the course focuses on International Contract Law, including the negotiation process, the drafting of contracts, choice of law for the contract, 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 (the CISG) and the EU legislation on choice of law for international contracts (the Rome Convention and the Rome I Regulation) as well as principles of international contract law (the Unidroit Principles for International Commercial Contracts and the Principles of European Contract Law).

The second part of the course focuses on dispute settlement through international litigation and commercial arbitration. Emphasis is on different forms of arbitration (ad hoc and institutional arbitration), the drafting of arbitration agreements, the lex arbitri, 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, the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules, and the New York Convention on Recognition and Enforcement of Arbitral Awards. For litigation, the legislative basis is the EU legislation on international jurisdiction and recognition and enforcement of judgments (the Brussels I Regulation) and the Hague Judgments Conventions from 2005 and 2019.

Teaching

Lectures, including exercises and cases. During lectures, the general rules and principles will be explained. The purpose of the exercises and cases, which are integrated into all lectures, 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 if new editions):

Magaret L. Moses, The principles and practice of international commercial arbitration, 3rd ed, 2017, ISBN 978-1-316-60628-5 (paperback), Cambridge University Press. All chapters except Chapter 11 (240 pages).

Joseph Lookofsky, Understandig the CISG, 6. ed 2022, ISBN 9788757449181, (paperback), Djøf Publishing. All chapters, except ch. 3 and ch. 9.

Michael Bogdan and Pertegas Sender, Concise Introduction to EU Private International Law, 4rd ed, 2019, ISBN 9789089522085 (paperback), Europa Law Publishing. Chapters 1, 3 and 7 (90 pages).

Articles on Canvas (60 pages).

The required readings are approximately 500 pages.