B2585 - INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS NEGOTIATION

Learning outcomes

The purpose of the course is to allow students to negotiate, in team, with a team of foreign students about an international business deal. Major goals of the course are: to stimulate students to look at such deals from other than purely legal angles, e;g. including attention for strategy; to teach students negotaiating skills by allowing them to engage in realistic negotiations; to contribute to their sensistivity for intercultural issues that play a role in such settings and therefor to contribute to attitudes that incorporate such sensitivities.This course teaches hands-on, real world, international negotiation skills in a simulated negotiation. The negotiations will take place through written exchanges and live negotiations conducted via videoconference. The course will provide students with an opportunity to: (i) experience the sequential development of a business transaction over an extended negotiation; (ii) study the business and legal issues and strategies that impact the negotiation; (iii) gain insight into the dynamics of negotiating and structuring international business transactions; (iv) learn about the role that lawyers and lawplay in these negotiations; (v) give students experience in drafting communications; and (vi) provide negotiating experience in a context that replicates actual legal practice with an opposing party.

Course contents

The course is structured as simulation of a commercial negotiation case and students will act as lawyers negotiating for the development of a groundbreaking medicine between a multinational pharmaceutical company and a developing African country. During the negotiations each party will hold assets that the other needs. Business and political challenges will have to be considered in order to develop an outcome mutually beneficial for the parties. Students will experience first-hand and in “real-time” the dynamics, tactics and strategies of a “real-life” international business negotiation, including the drafting of memos and a final letter of intent.

Negotiation simulations will be undertaken by the selected students from the University of Bologna and by a team of students from the University of Ghent (Belgium). Negotiation sessions will be held online each week, following the exchange of a written memo. The final negotiation sessions will be held in person in Ghent (additional information about the trip will be provided at the beginning of the course. The trip will be funded by the Department of Legal Studies).

The course has only been taught regularly at major law schools in the USA and, since 2014, at the University of Ghent. Numerous graduates report having changed their professional paths and personal goals as a result of their course experiences.

The course is open only to a maximum of 12 highly motivated students, enrolled in the 5th year, who will collaborate as a team. The selection process will occur before the beginning of the course, based on the assessment conducted by the professor during individual interviews with each candidate. Proficiency in written and spoken English is essential, with a preference for C1 level. However, B2 level students may be considered after further verification.

The following preference criteria will also be considered:

• Attendance and successful completion of other university courses in English.

• Participation in international or national moot courts or similar simulations.

• Experience in negotiation, mediation, and other dispute resolution mechanisms.

• Participation in Erasmus exchanges.

To be considered for selection, interested students must submit their applications by completing the web-form at https://forms.office.com/e/sTtvYfc9B3 before the deadline of September 13th, 2023. To access the form the student shall log in with the @studio.unibo.it [http://studio.unibo.it/] email address. Students who are unable to access the web-form should email elena.gabellini4@unibo.it [mailto:elena.gabellini4@unibo.it] .

Applicants are required to self-certify their possession of the aforementioned qualifications and expertise. Further documentation may be requested by the professor.

The interviews will take place on September 18th, 2023. Students who have submitted the web-form will receive information about the interview's timing and location.

After the selection process, the students will be ranked according to the criteria, and a list of admitted students will be communicated, along with a waiting list for non-admitted candidates.

Only selected students will have the opportunity to include the course in their Study Plan and will be awarded 7 CFU upon attending all course activities and successfully completing the course. Students are advised against submitting their application for the course if in October/November 2023 they will be concurrently working as trainees or doing an internship, as full attendance to the course activities is mandatory

Readings/Bibliography

Students attending the course will receive the essential textbooks and negotiation materials at the start of the lectures. The materials will be accessible through the Virtuale platform.

The reference textbook for the course is:

D. Bradlow and J. Finkelstein, “Negotiating Business Transactions: An Extended Simulation Course” (Wolters Kluwer, Aspen Coursebook Series, 3rd ed., 2022)

Teaching methods

The first lecture of the course will provide a detailed introduction to course activities and organization. The course is composed of frontal lectures, practical training and negotiation sessions. Prof. Elena Gabellini will coordinate the activities of the team of the University of Bologna. Further lecturers will include professional negotiators and mediators, and other practitioners and experts in the pharmaceutical field. Students will also receive additional support from a tutor.

Each week the students will be required to submit to the team at the University of Ghent a written memo within the set deadline and, after receiving the response from the opposing party, to undertake a negotiation session online or in-person (in the final week of the course).

Attendance to lectures, seminars, and course activities is mandatory. Students should attend 95% of the whole activities. Students are advised against submitting their application for the course if in October/November 2023 they will be concurrently working as trainees or doing an internship, as full attendance to the course activities is mandatory

Assessment methods

Assessment methods

The course assigns 7 CFU and each student will be assigned an individual mark out of 30 (pass grade: 18/30). Each students will be evaluated on the basis of three different parametes:

- his/her active involvement in the lectures and partecipation to the activities (50%);

- quality of the memo submitted and overall performance during the final week of negotiations, that will take place in Ghent (30%);

- written test consisting in two opened questions (take-home exam, 20%).

Teaching tools

Relevant materials will be uploaded on Virtuale.

Office hours

See the website of Elena Gabellini

See the website of Rachele Gabellini