This is an basic course of business law, covering contracts, agency, partnerships, corporations and other forms of business organisations and intellectual property.

Students are expected to gain a general understanding of business law (together with a perception of its several implications in their future professional careers) and to acquire a basic legal vocabulary.

No previous knowledge of law or legal methods is required for this course.

The course will briefly consider theories of the firm and their role in the economy. It will cover basic principles of contracts, business organisations (notably partnerships and corporations), the incorporation of an enterprise and how the corporate structure works. We will then consider management and control of the corporation, actions of directors, and, generally, the distribution of powers between directors and shareholders within the corporate framework. General concepts on agency, financial markets, antitrust, and intellectual property regulation (such as patent and trademarks) will be addressed and explained in class, as they are primarily intended to provide the students with the basic tools needed to understand the relationships between law and enterprises. In light of the growing internationalization of modern financial markets and business relationships, the course will not be exclusively focused on the Italian regulation: it will rather provide general legal principles applicable to various countries and systems. Reference to parallel legal developments in various jurisdictions will be made throughout the course.

Cases, articles and readings on specific issues will be assigned throughout the semester. Real contracts and corporate bylaws will be examined in class. During the final part of the course, students will work in teams on a case and will be required to prepare a seminar paper. Submission of the seminar paper is mandatory for all students and will be taken into account in the overall evaluation (see below).

EMERSON, Business Law, New York, 2011 KRAAKMAN-DAVIES-HANSMANN-HERTIG-HOPT-KANDA-ROCK, The Anatomy of Corporate Law. A Comparative and Functional Approach, Oxford, 2004

Modalita di esame: Prova scritta (in aula); Elaborato scritto prodotto in gruppo;

Exam: Written test; Group essay;

... The grades will be based on a written examination at the end of the course. The examination will be a closed book test with a duration of 60 minutes and with 10 questions (a combination of open questions and multiple choice questions) each graded from 0 to 3 points. Questions are aimed at evaluating comprehension of legal concepts, acquisition of proper terminology and ability to explain/solve issues in a brief and effective way. Seminar paper and class participation will concur to the overall students' evaluation with a possible bonus ranging from +1 to +3.

Gli studenti e le studentesse con disabilita o con Disturbi Specifici di Apprendimento (DSA), oltre alla segnalazione tramite procedura informatizzata, sono invitati a comunicare anche direttamente al/la docente titolare dell'insegnamento, con un preavviso non inferiore ad una settimana dall'avvio della sessione d'esame, gli strumenti compensativi concordati con l'Unita Special Needs, al fine di permettere al/la docente la declinazione piu idonea in riferimento alla specifica tipologia di esame.