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Percorso della pagina
  1. Law
  2. Single Cycle Master Degree (5 years)
  3. Giurisprudenza [LMG01A - 581]
  4. Courses
  5. A.A. 2023-2024
  6. 4th year
  1. Foundations of Business Law
  2. Summary
Insegnamento Course full name
Foundations of Business Law
Course ID number
2324-4-A5810235
Course summary SYLLABUS

Course Syllabus

  • Italiano ‎(it)‎
  • English ‎(en)‎
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Obiettivi formativi

Contenuti sintetici

Programma esteso

Prerequisiti

Metodi didattici

Modalità di verifica dell'apprendimento

Testi di riferimento

Sustainable Development Goals

IMPRESE, INNOVAZIONE E INFRASTRUTTURE | PACE, GIUSTIZIA E ISTITUZIONI SOLIDE
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Learning objectives

The course provides students with basic knowledge and understanding of both the historical and the economic foundations of three essential business law institutions such as corporations, bankruptcy, and insurance. These foundations are studied in order to allow students to acquire a critical understanding of current regulations of such institutions across modern legal systems.

Contents

The course focuses on three of the legal pillars of modern economies: corporations, bankruptcy, and insurance.
By combining history and economic analysis of law, the course is aimed at exploring the foundations on which these institutions have been built, in order to allow students to acquire a more solid knowledge and a more critical understanding of their current regulation across modern legal systems.
The course begins with an introductory part, aimed at setting the stage for the application of both historical and economic analysis of those topics. Then three parts follow, each one devoted to the study of each legal institution, by going through its historical development, as well as by reflecting on its economic rationales.

Detailed program

Introduction

  • The functions of business law from an economic perspective: the basic analytical tools of law and economics.
  • History (From Dusk till Dawn) - Historiography (Law Merchant: Deconstructing a Myth).

Part I: Corporations

  • How to Do Business? Forms of Organization among Merchants.
  • The essential role of organizational law; characteristics and functions of the corporate entity.

Part II: Bankruptcy

  • Merchants in Trouble: The Consequences of Crisis and Failure of Business Undertakings.
  • The basic dynamics of the relationship between a firm and its creditors; the logic and limits of bankruptcy law.

Part III: Insurance

  • Shielding Business: The Historical Roots of Insurance.
  • Risk aversion and its implications; the insurance mechanisms; principles underlying the regulation of insurance contracts and firms.

Prerequisites

Teaching methods

Lectures and problem-based discussions; slide show; reading of historical sources and documents; interaction by the e-learning course page.
The course is taught in English.

Assessment methods

Oral exam to assess the students' knowledge of the topics dealt with in the classes and in the materials provided by the teachers.

Textbooks and Reading Materials

Students can choose between two alternative learning paths.

First option
It requires regular attendance and active participation during class discussions.
The exam will cover class contents, slides and materials published on the e-learning website.

Second option
It requires an in-depth study of the following texts

Historical texts

  • From Lex Mercatoria to Commercial Law, ed. by V. Piergiovanni, Berlin, Duncker & Humblot, 2005 (Comparative studies in continental and Anglo-American legal history 24): pp. 53-67 (Cordes);
  • The Courts and the Development of Commercial Law, ed. by V. Piergiovanni, Berlin, Duncker & Humblot, 1987 (Comparative studies in continental and Anglo-American legal history 2): pp. 12-21 (Piergiovanni), 23-38 (Piergiovanni);
  • The Company in Law and Practice: Did Size Matter? Middle Ages – Nineteenth Century, ed. by D. De Ruysscher et al., Leiden-Boston, Brill, 2017 (Legal History Library 23), pp. 49-62 (Brunori), 63-83 (Amend-Traut);
  • T. Kuehn, Debt and bankruptcy in Florence. Statutes and cases, in Quaderni storici, 46.2 (2011), pp. 355-390 (also available online at https://www.rivisteweb.it/issn/0301-6307/issue/3430);
  • Marine Insurance. Origins and Institutions, 1300-1850, ed. by A.B. Leonard, Houndmills, Basingstoke Hampshire, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, pp. 25-46 (Piccinno).

Economic analysis texts

  • R. KRAAKMAN ET AL., The Anatomy of Corporate Law, 3rd ed., Oxford University Press, 2017, Chapters 1, 2, 5;
  • T.H. JACKSON, The Logic and Limits of Bankruptcy Law, Harvard University Press, 1986, Introduction and Chapters 1, 6, 8;
  • D. SCHWARCZ - P. SIEGELMAN, Law and Economics of Insurance, in The Oxford Handbook of Law and Economics: Volume 2: Private and Commercial Law, edited by F. Parisi, OUP, 2017, pp. 481-508;
  • T. BAKER- P. SIEGELMAN, Behavioral Economics and Insurance Law, in The Oxford Handbook of Behavioral Economics and the Law, edited by E. Zamir and D. Teichman, OUP, 2014, pp. 491-517;
  • S.A. REA jr, The Economics of Insurance Law, in 13 Int’l Rev. Law & Econ. (1993), pp. 145-162.

Sustainable Development Goals

INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE | PEACE, JUSTICE AND STRONG INSTITUTIONS
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Key information

Field of research
IUS/04
ECTS
6
Term
First semester
Activity type
Mandatory to be chosen
Course Length (Hours)
42
Degree Course Type
5-year single cycle Master Degree
Language
English

Staff

    Teacher

  • AM
    Andrea Giovanni Massironi
  • DS
    Danilo Semeghini

Students' opinion

View previous A.Y. opinion

Bibliography

Find the books for this course in the Library

Enrolment methods

Manual enrolments
Self enrolment (Student)

Sustainable Development Goals

INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE - Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE
PEACE, JUSTICE AND STRONG INSTITUTIONS - Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
PEACE, JUSTICE AND STRONG INSTITUTIONS

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