00232 - Comparative Private Law (M-Z)

Learning outcomes

The course aims at introducing students to the knowledge of comparative private law subjects, providing access keys to legal systems and legal structures other than the domestic one. Particular attention will be given to the process of legal harmonization - that is strictly related to economic globalization and to European integration - and to the relations between comparison and unification of the law.

Course contents

Module A (30 hours):

 

Introduction to comparative law - The macro-comparison: the legal systems of the world - Circulation of models and legal transplants - The micro-comparison - Introduction to private law topics in a comparative law perspective: Torts, Contract, Property  - Comparison and uniformation of the law at European and Global level - IPR.

 

Module B (30 hours):

 

Chinese law in the age of globalization - Circulation of models and legal reforms in China - Law, development and international cooperation in the process of modernization of Chinese law - Case studies on the protection of intellectual property rights

Readings/Bibliography

Students that attended the course

 

1)  Textbooks (written and oral exam)*

 

Vincenzo Varano – Vittoria Barsotti, La tradizione giuridica occidentale, vol. I, testo e materiali per un confronto civil law common law, quinta edizione, Giappichelli, Torino, 2014, pp. 110 -192, 263-372.

 

FRANCESCO GALGANO (ed.), Atlandte di diritto privato comparato, con la collaborazione di Franco Ferrari e Gianmaria Ajani,  quinta edizione, Zanichelli, Bologna, 2011, pp. 33-54; 69-144; 155-174; 197-240; 245-254; 267-288.

 

2) In-depth analysis (only oral part of the exam)

 

MARINA TIMOTEO, La difesa di marchi e brevetti in Cina, Percorsi normativi in un sistema di transizione, Giappichelli, Torino, 2014, pp. 1- 116.

 

Students not attending the course

 

1) Textbooks (written and oral exam)*

 

Vincenzo Varano – Vittoria Barsotti, La tradizione giuridica occidentale, vol. I, testo e materiali per un confronto civil law common law, quinta edizione, Giappichelli, Torino, 2014, pp. 110 -192, 263-372.

 

FRANCESCO GALGANO (ed.), Atlante di Diritto Privato Comparato, con la collaborazione di Franco Ferrari e Gianmaria Ajani,  quinta edizione, Zanichelli, Bologna, 2011, pp. 33-54; 69-174; 197-240; 245-254; 267-288.

 

2) In-depth analysis (only oral part of the exam)

 

MARINA TIMOTEO, La difesa di marchi e brevetti in Cina, Percorsi normativi in un sistema di transizione, Giappichelli, Torino, 2014, pp. 1- 126.

 

Supplement of Private comparative law (3CFU)*

The programme is the following:

1) The property regimes in family law

2) Introduction to the uniform law and the discipline of international sales;

3) The system of debt securities in civil and common law systems;

4) The industrial property

Textbook: FRANCESCO GALGANO (ed.), Atlante di Diritto Privato Comparato, con la collaborazione di Franco Ferrari e Gianmaria Ajani,  quinta edizione, Zanichelli, Bologna, 2011, pp. 175-196; 245-288.

Those students that must integrate more or less than 3 credits, should, with reasonable notice, contact the professor or the assistants in order to devise an ad hoc program.

* Please note that students can not prepare the examination on textbooks' editions older than those indicated.

Teaching methods

The course will take place through lectures.

During the lectures the student will be asked to participate to the discussion through case studies, mock trials and detailed study of specific topics.

The intensity and continuity of participation to the course will be assessed by self-certification.

Assessment methods

The evaluation takes place only through the final exam, which ensures the acquisition of the required knowledge by conducting a written test, lasting 15 minutes without the help of notes or books, followed by an oral examination. Students must pass the written test in order to be admitted to sit for the oral exam.

 

The written test consists of 15 multiple choice questions, of which 7/8 on the introduction and classification of contemporary legal systems and 8/7 on private comparative law institutes, analysed in the course. Each question will be worth 2 points. To be eligible to sit for the oral exam a minimum score of 18 points must be obtained in the written test. The written test has effect only for one oral examination. In the case of passing the written test, but not the oral exam, students will need to retake also the written test.

 

The oral examination consists of an interview with the teacher and the assistants of the teacher, on both modules, which can not be object of separate examination.

The oral examination is designed to appreciate the level of understanding and mastery of  the comparative method in the study of private law topics. The achievement by the student of an organic vision of the issues addressed, and in particular the ability to capture the dynamic aspects of private law topics, in a comparative perspective, gathering similarities and differences, influences and cohesion, will be evaluated with marks of excellence. The knowledge of the topics covered in the course that is mainly mnemonic and notional and that will lead to an oral colloquium not well supported by  reasoning of synthesis and analysis of the issues, and the using an organic and correct language but not always appropriate, will lead to an average pass outcome; training gaps and / or inappropriate language, albeit in the context of a minimal knowledge of the exam material, will lead to just enough mark; training gaps, inappropriate language, lack of guidance within the texts, will be adversely evaluated.

In order to sit for the exam, registration through the electronic platform "Almaesami" is required, in compliance with mandatory deadlines (usually 7 days before the date set for the examination). Those who do not succeed with the enrolling by the due date, are required to report promptly (and in any event before the official closing of the registration lists) the problem to the school's secretary office. The professor, evaluated the problem, will decide about the admission to sit for the exam.

 

Once passed the written part of the examination, the student will necessarily proceed with a new registration for the oral part of the exam, always through Almaesami.

Registration via email messages and out of the terms, will not be accepted.

The course will be held in the first semester and therefore students who have chosen the course in the current year will be able to sit for the exam starting from the month of January.

Please note that the exam of Comparative Private Law can be taken only after passing the examinations of Constitutional Law and Private Law. No exceptions will be made.

Only students that are regularly enrolled, that payd all the due university taxes, that have already sitted the necessary exams will be able to sit for the examinations. Under no circumstances it will be possible to sit the exmination and proceed with the registration not simultaneousely.

Thesis

For the purposes of assigning a Bachelor’s degree project in comparative private law, the knowledge of at least one foreign language is required. The level of the foreign language will be verified through a preliminary interview. Interested students are therefore invited to contact the teacher or Dr. Angela Carpi to agree on the date on which the colloquium is to be held.
Once the subject of the dissertation has been identified and approved by the teacher, the students will have to periodically inform the rapporteur on the state of progress of the work, according to a work program agreed upon. Once the thesis is completed and the teacher's permission is received, the students will be able to proceed with the secretarial delivery within institutionally established terms.

Where strictly necessary, the correlation request must be discussed and agreed with the teacher, who will eventually contact the chosen teacher for correlation.

Office hours

See the website of Marina Timoteo

See the website of Angela Carpi