OVERVIEW

The course on Private International Law (PIL) aims to provide students with the necessary tools for an adequate knowledge and critical evaluation of the main issues affecting the discipline, analysing the role and resilience of PIL facing the challenges of global society. These challenges arise, in particular, in the area of PIL rules applicable to companies open to exports and to the international dimension (Module 1, LMG & SLIPA); in the EU Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (Module 2, LMG); and with reference to maritime relationships with cross-border implications (Module 2, SLIPA). The adequacy of the PIL rules adopted at a domestic, supranational (EU) and international level will be assessed, inter alia, verifying their compliance with a high standard of protection of fundamental rights, as well as their actual suitability to deal with the opportunities and risks related, also in this area, to the digitalisation and the use of Artificial Intelligence.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of the course, students will have acquired the methodological tools and advanced notions of private international law; they will have developed the ability to understand and analyse the most crucial and complex current legal issues concerning transnational private relations in civil and commercial matters; they will also be able to independently elaborate, with a critical spirit and aptitude for in-depth study, possible solutions to specific issues on the various topics addressed, submitted to them through open questions and reference to case law.

PREREQUISITES

A fruitful study of the topics covered in the course requires knowledge of the basics of substantive private law, constitutional law, international law, European Union law and civil procedural law.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

LESSONS

LESSONS START

II semester from February to May 2025

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

The exam is sustained in oral form. Only the students attending at least 2/3 of the lessons are entitled to take the exam through written tests. As far as written tests are concerned, the student answers 20 questions with multiple answer (for maximum 20 points) and one open question (for maximum 10 points), without the possibility to examine legal sources. Each correct answer to the questions at multiple answer is evaluated 1/20, while each incorrect answer or no answer is evaluated 0/20.

Presentations of cases by the students – of which account will also be taken with a view to determining the final mark – will contribute to the development of specific competences in the area of public speaking and team work, also with a view to the award of Open Badge. The eventual drafting of term papers on specific topics – the outcome of which is also taken into account for the purposes of the final mark – is aimed at developing clarity of presentation and argumentative coherence in the drafting of written texts.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The oral and the written exam aim at verifying (i) the effective knowledge and the acquisition by the students of the theoretical notions explained in the course, as well as (ii) the ability of the students to comprehend and apply the rules of International Law concerning specific issues. Through questions of theoretical and practical nature, it will be verified whether the student is able to:

• identify and understand the rules and dynamics governing the coordination of the various sources (domestic, supranational and international) intended to affect issues of private international law;
• identify and understand the rules of international, supranational and domestic law that promote and guarantee access to justice in civil matters, in situations involving connections with several state systems, both within and outside the EU;
• analyse and understand the different techniques which, in the field of private international law, govern (i) the identification of the law applicable to private law transactions of a 'cross-border' nature and (ii) the applicability, in the Italian legal system, of legal rules in force in foreign legal systems, as well as acts or decisions adopted abroad;
• apply the main reference techniques and rules in the above-mentioned subjects, also through the analysis of concrete problems occurred in practice and the simulation of cases;
• understand and critically assess the impact, in the various sectors subject to analysis and reflection, of the internal, supranational and international norms protecting fundamental rights.