International business law

Prof. Matthias E. STORME

2011-2012

Information given by the law school: http://onderwijsaanbod.kuleuven.be/syllabi/e/C08B3AE.htm

Course included in the following programs:

- Master of laws (LLM)

- Master in de economie, het recht en de bedrijfskunde

- Master in de rechten

- Study Abroad programme in European Culture and Society

Classes

Fall 2011 - Classes on Wednesday (sometimes 11 a.m. - 13, sometimes 9 a.m. - 13 a.m.) - in MTC 00.03

1. 28 sep 11-13: Sources and players

2. 5 oct 9-11: international private law (conflicts of law)

3. 5 oct 11-13: WTO law 1

4. 12 oct 11-13: WTO law 2

5. 19 oct 9-11: Sales 1

6. 19 oct 11-13: Sales 2

7. 26 oct 11-13: General contract law

8. 9 nov 11-13: Distribution

9. 16 nov 9-11: technology 1

10. 16 nov 11-13: technology 2 + investments

11. 23 nov 11-13: financing 1

12. 30 nov 9-11: financing 2

13. 30 nov 11-13: financing 3 / payments 1

14. 7 dec 11-13: payments 2

15. 14 dec 9-11: procedure 1

16. 14 dec 11-13: procedure 2

17. 21 dec 11-13: arbitration

Materials

are posted at http://www.storme.be/IBLmaterials.html

Basic table of contents

PART I. GENERAL FRAMEWORK

* Topic 1. Sources and players in international law

* Topic 2. International private law

* Topic 3. Rules of the game - GATT/WTO

PART II. TRANSACTIONS

* Topic 4. International sales

* Topic 5. General contract law - UPICC

* Topic 6. Distribution agreements

* Topic 7. Intellectual property and transfer of technology

* Topic 8. Protection of investments

* Topic 9a. International financing and credit security

* Topic 9b. Aspects of property law and proprietary security

* Topic 10. International payments

PART III LITIGATION

* Topic 11. International procedure and insolvency

* Topic 12. International commercial arbitration

Exam

Written exam January 2012; open questions; use of official sources allowed.

Explanation:

- allowed: legislation (national, european, treaties, etc.) incl. soft law (Unidroit principles, UPC, URDG, Incoterms etc.), case law, Opinions CISG AC.

In all languages (provided the text can be recognised as a text of such nature)

- allowed: translation dictionaries

- not allowed: other materials, including slides, handbook, personal notes, etc.

Exam questions - examples

Question 1.

What is the role of "good faith (and fair dealing)" in CISG and in the Unidroit PICC?

Question 2.

What would the introduction of a "Community patent" change in comparison with the actual situation in Europe regarding patents?

Question 3.

Art. 5 of the UCP for documentary credits states "Banks deal with documents, not with goods". Art. 4 UCP deals with the distinction "credits v. contracts".

- Explain what this means. Include an explanation of the different legal relationships involved (you may restrict this to a simple case with only 1 bank involved).

- Which law is applicable to each of these relationships?