International Trade Law

The course of International Trade Law is proposed in the third year of the bachelor programme. It complements the other courses of the curriculum on International Trade, i.e. two other courses in legal studies (Commercial Law and Private International Law), one in economics (International Economics) and one in historical studies (History of International Economic Relations).

Moving primarily from a legal perspective, students are confronted with the complexity and interdependence of social, political and economic situations which underpin the regulation of international trade relations among States. The aim of the course is surveying, analyzing (in particular under the framework of the World Trade Organization) and systematizing hard and soft law rules stemming from international, European Union's, and internal law. Students will get familiar of how these regulations affect the sovereignty of WTO Members at different levels and in the different sectors (trade in goods, trade in services, trade- related aspects of intellectual property rights, dispute resolution mechanisms). Students are also meant to appreciate how the overlapping of different rules and targets requires finding a balance between competing of domestic interests and goals. The course surveys the trends in multilateral and bilateral trade negotiations on conflicting national interests and on the relationship between developed and developing countries. During lectures, interventions, group presentations and confrontation among groups will allow students to learn how to discuss practical cases and define their essential features from different perspectives.

International trade law is increasingly called to mediate between the objectives of economic growth and the protection of widespread general rights and interests (for example health protection, access to knowledge and information, environment protection, food safety, human rights, fight against corruption). The course, in particular through the analysis of WTO law and practice, the examination of cases and the monitoring of current events, aims at strengthening the ability to a critical approach to complex situations and to recognize the increasing interdependency in international economic relations. Students will be able to frame protectionist tendencies in national economic policies and to link to them the possible risks with respect to the governance of international relations.
Students achieve the ability to recognize the interests underlying specific situations, to identify the reference rules in the law of the World Trade Organization. They will become familiar with framing cases in the appropriate regulatory context at different levels, envisaging the possible solutions depending on different perspectives such as e.g. the one of a specific State or group of States, of the European Union, of the civil society.