Private International Law

The broad reach of globalization and digitalization easily extend to daily choices of personal and business life. Contracts as well as family relationships increasingly have a cross-border nature, both within the European Union, because of the freedom of movement that individuals, goods, services, and capitals enjoy according to EU law, and globally, as an effect of the international rules governing trade as well as of migration phenomena. Moreover, the growing importance of digital technologies in all sectors of modern life have a decisive impact on the ongoing economic and social transformations in the EU and worldwide. In this context, the sector of electronic commerce (e-commerce) has been developing faster and faster, resulting in both new opportunities and new challenges in the field of cross-border commercial and financial transactions. Thus, private international laws rules — i.e., the rules governing the law applicable to relations across different legal jurisdictions between natural persons, companies, and other legal entities, indicating the appropriate forum for the purpose of settling disputes between them, and, finally, that set out conditions for the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgements — are nowadays a necessary tool within business activities. This field of international law is characterized by a complex interweave of domestic and UE rules, and of uniform rules set out in international treaties. The course aims at providing students with the basics of the current private international law legal framework, through the analysis of the relevant domestic legislation (the Italian Law No 218 of 1995) and of the most important EU regulations, as well as at exploring private international law issues related to the digitalization of commercial and financial transactions. Not only will the teaching activities develop students' understanding of the rules, but they will also enhance their skills to apply such rules, and their mastery of legal language, together with their communication skills, through the examination of concrete cases, first in guided classroom mode, and then independently, with subsequent discussion in the classroom.

At the end of the course, students shall be acquainted with the founding aspects of private international law and will also have to be in the position to grasp the essence of its functioning, all the while showing knowledge of the provisions applicable to several different thematic areas, such as contracts (with a special focus on the emerging issues related to the digitalization of the market), tort, and family law. They are also expected to deal with the most frequent and urgent issues in private transnational relationships in an appropriate fashion, by resorting to the theoretical, linguistic, and normative toolbox of private international that they are required to acquire thorough the exam of the judicial application of relevant provisions, thanks to specific case-studies and adequate supporting materials. While attending the course, students will be required to perform hands-down research tasks, hence becoming confident with electronic case-law databases, scholarly collections, and other resources. Such skills, which may be used for autonomous research purposes, appear to be transferrable in nature, so as to be suitable to be eventually resorted to both in the course of their studies and in their future profession.