International Trade and Ip Law

The new and controversial issues currently characterising relations between states in economic matters, i.e. both trade relations between the European Union and the different geographical areas (European area in the broadest sense, transatlantic, Pacific, Mediterranean and Asian), both the increasingly complex and diversified relations with the least developed countries, and the relations with variable groups of states that form and aggregate from time to time around certain issues (to name a few agriculture and gmos, technical specifications, health measures, patents, geographical indications, cultural and audiovisual services) require that the student, in particular a student who has undertaken a path of master's studies specifically oriented to international trade preferably (but not only) towards a professional outlet with responsibility in the field of services, the representation of interests and in general of companies on international markets and in the institutional field for relations with other countries , learn, also in the field of law, to open up the perspective to the global context, to become familiar with legal models and global economic behaviour, to get out of the traditional strictly domestic and European scheme and, ultimately, to take note of the interdependence of national legal and economic systems resulting from the essential interpenetration of markets and the denationalization of economic actors, therefore the non-neutrality of national (choices) policies in all sectors affecting international trade in goods and Services.The course aims to acquire the ability to bring situations back to the correct international regulatory environment, to recognize the national interests behind it, to seek solutions in the rules of international law and according to the typical tools of the WTO system (first of all the multilateral negotiating system) or that have gone alongside and /or overlapping. This objective presupposes knowledge and the system of the rules of international law, European Union law (e.g. trade defence measures or trade mark), national law which, at different levels and in the different sectors of interest (goods, services, intellectual property, dispute settlement), on the one hand affect, by limiting it, the sovereignty of States in matters relating, in a broad sense, to the international movement of goods and services, and on the other hand they require or at least suggest, in the institutionalized mechanisms of cooperation between States in economic matters, the search for a balance between conflicting national interests and, increasingly, between the objectives of economic growth and the protection of the rights and widespread interests of the community (health , access to knowledge and information, environment, human rights, fight against corruption). At the heart of the course is the World Trade Organization/World Trade Organization. The student acquires knowledge of WTO law and practice, of the guiding principles of the multilateral trading system (first of all that of mutual advantages and obligations), of the mechanisms of operation of it, the familiarity to frame, from time to time, situations in the correct regulatory context, then to envisage, compatible with this system, possible solutions to achieve the objectives in international negotiations and internally.

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.