International contracts and arbitration

Recommended Prerequisites

Business Law/Civil Procedure.

Teaching Methods

Methodology: The teacher will give oral classes about the subjects. Students will be invited to discuss the subject. Students must prepare in advance short speeches about one particular theme. The teacher will previously give the students court decisions, foreign and Portuguese laws and some problems to be studied.

Evaluation: continuous evaluation, including the preparation and presentation of a written paper.

Learning Outcomes

Purposes:

a) Analysis of problems concerning international commercial contracts and arbitration that where not studied during 1st. Cycle;

b) Make clear the national and international  legal regime in what concerns international commercial contracts;

c) Achieving knowledge about some of the most frequent international commercial contracts;

a) Achieving knowledge about the national and international law on arbitration as well as about some of the most frequently used arbitration rules

Competencies:

b) Knowledge about up-to-date international commercial contracts and arbitration problems;

c) Knowledge about practical themes;

d) Wide vision about subjects that will allow students to prepare a Master Thesis concerning matters which are not often studied or not studied at all, stimulating rigorous investigation and analysis;

e) Critical view about how Portuguese and International Law deals with some problems, suggesting alternative ways.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

PART I – International Commercial Contracts

Types of international commercial contracts

Statutory law and international law related to international commercial contracts

Contracting procedures

Typical clauses

Applicable law

Analysis of some international commercial contracts

PART II - International Commercial Arbitration

Advantages of the international commercial arbitration

Ad hoc and institutionalized arbitration

International and national discipline

The arbitration convention

Arbitrability

Autonomy of the arbitration clause and the Kompetenz-Kompetenz principle

The applicable law: the merits and the process

The decision

A few especially complex themes.

Assessment Methods

Evaluation
Evaluation: continuous evaluation, including the preparation and presentation of a written paper: 100.0%

Bibliography

Brito, Maria Helena, Direito do comércio internacional, Almedina, Coimbra, 2004

Crahay,Paul, Les contrats internationaux d’agence et de concession de vente, LGDJ, Paris,1991

Draetta, Ugo/Lake, Ralph, Contrats internationaux: pathologie et remedes, Bruylant, Bruxelles,1996

Pinheiro, Luís de Lima, Direito comercial internacional, Almedina, Coimbra, 2005

Soares, Maria Ângela/Ramos, Rui Moura, Do contrato de compra e venda internacional, DDC, 1981,p.73-290

Almeida, Carlos Ferreira de, Meios jurídicos de resolução de conflitos económicos, Boletim da Faculdade de Direito de Bissau, 2, 1993, p.173 e ss.

Correia, Ferrer, «Da arbitragem comercial internacional», RDE, 1984/1985, p.e ss.

Fouchard, Gaillard, Goldman, On international Commercial Arbitration, The Hague, 1999

Hanotiau, B., Complex arbitrations. Multiparty, multicontract, multi-issue and class actions, The Hague, 2005

Pinheiro, Luís de Lima, Arbitragem transnacional. A determinação do estatuto da arbitragem, Almedina, Coimbra, 2005