International Trade Law Disputes

This course deals with international trade law and international arbitration and as such it is an expansion on the International trade law course offered on year 3. Additionally, the introduction into international arbitration provides for an expansion of the knowledge obtained by the students in the mandatory course on civil procedure.

International trade counts for over 2/3 of the world trade today. As a basic requirement it is required for a practitioner within this field to have a thorough knowledge about the relevant legal conventions/model laws/principles/doctrines and ways to settle disputes when trading across borders and legal systems. The course will provide participants with that knowledge. Furthermore, the course will provide the students with the skills necessary to not only solve a legal dispute from an objective point of view but also to make strategic decisions as to how the law is best argued in order to obtain the best possible position for a potential client. In this way the course aims at providing the participants with the competence necessary to deal independently with any dispute within this area of law. 

Parts of Margaret L. Moses, The Principles and Practice of International Commercial Arbitration, latest edition.

Siig, Arbitration Agreements in a Transport Law Perspective, p. 244-256 and p. 295-319.

Siig, Multi-party arbitration in international trade: problems and solutions, Int. J. Liability and Scientific Enquiry, Vol. 1, Nos. 1/2, 2007, p. 72-84.

Schlechtriem & Schwenzer: Commentary on the UN Convention on the International Sale of Goods (CISG), p. 120-181, 398-437, 568-594, 724-732.

The purpose is to attract Danish as well as exchange students and to benefit from the different level of knowledge and background each student brings to the class. There will be an emphasis on student participation, and it will be required that students make presentations and participate in discussions and Moot Court exercises.

Student-lead self-tuition: Case- and group work including moot court exercises are prepared in the weeks where there is no scheduled teacher-lead tuition. Students are expected to participate in this. Each student is expected to make at least one class presentation of a case or a given problem as instructed by the teacher. 

Scheduled classes:
The course will be taught as 9x3 lectures.

1 ECTS is equivalent to 27 working hours. An estimated retail distribution of the workload of an average student can be:
Lectures: 27.
Preparation for lectures: 100.
Student lead case studies: 24.
Preparation for student lead case studies: 34.
Independent search for and analysis of materials: 30.
Preparation for exams: 54.
Exam: 1.
Total: 270.