International Contract Law
Professor Mohamed Mattar
Credits: 3
Course Description:
This course will discuss the general principles of international contracts, including contract negotiations, contract formation, and contract drafting. Specific terms and conditions will be examined, especially force major, terms of payment, warranty clauses, termination, choice of law, and choice of forum; international arbitration will also be covered. The course will also discuss specific forms of international contracts, including agency/distribution, franchising, joint ventures, licensing/technology transfer and sales. The course will focus on international commercial standards, embodied in the UN Convention on the International Sale of Goods (CISG) and UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts.
Students may choose a “take-home” examination or write a research paper in lieu of the examination.
Course Syllabus:
1. International Contracts Law Course: Objectives and Requirements
2. Principles of International Commercial Contracts Lex Mercatoria
Assigned Materials:
a. Celia Wasserstein Fassberg, Lex Mercatoria – Hoist with its Own Petard?, 5 Chi. J. Int’l L. 67 (2004-2005).
b. Symeon, C. Symeonides, Choice of Law in the American Courts in 2011: Twenty-Fifth Annual Survey, 60 Am. J. Comp. L. 291 (2012).
c. Friedrich K. Juenger, Conflict of Laws, Comparative Law and Civil Law: The Lex Mercatoria and Private International Law, 60 La. L. Rev. 1133 (2000).
d. National Group for Communications and Computers Ltd. v. Lucent Technologies International Inc., 331 F. Supp. 2d 290, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16165 (2004).
e. Shamil Bank of Bahrain EC v. Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd and Others, Court of Appeal (Civil Division) (2004).
3. Principles of International Commercial Law The UNIDROIT
Assigned Materials:
a. Text of the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts (2010), Preamble and Chapter 1: General Provisions.
b. Lars Meyer, Soft Law for Solid Contracts? A Comparative Analysis of the Value of the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts and the Principles of European Contract Law to the Process of Contract Law Harmonization, 34 Denv. J. Int’l L. & Pol’y 119 (2006).
c. Michael Joachim Bonell, Brendan Brown Lecture Series: UNIDROIT Symposium: Soft Law and Party Autonomy: The Case of the UNIDROIT Principles, 51 Loy. L. Rev. 229 (2005).
4. The United Nations Convention on the International Sale of Goods
Assigned Materials:
a. Michael Joachim Bonell, The CISG, European Contract Law and the Development of a World Contract Law, 56 Am. J. Comp. L. 1 (2008).
b. Ingeborg Schwenzer and Pascal Hachem, The CISG - Successes and Pitfalls, 57 Am. J. Comp. L. 457 (2009).
c. Viva Vino Import Corporation vs. Farnese Vini S.r.l., Civil Action No. 99-6384, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12347.
5. Negotiation and Formation of International Commercial Contracts
Assigned Materials:
a. Mohamed Y. Mattar, Promissory Estoppel: Common Law Wine in Civil Law Bottles, 4 Tul. Civ. L.F. 71 (1989).
b. William C. Whitford and Stewart Macaulay, Hoffman v. Red Owl Stores: The Rest of the Story, 61 Hastings L.J. 801 (2010).
c. Juliet P. Kostritsky, Uncertainty, Reliance, Preliminary Negotiations and the Holdup Problem, 61 SMU L. Rev. 1377 (2008).
d. E. Allan Farnsworth, Precontractual Liability and Preliminary Agreements: Fair Dealing and Failed Negotiations, 87 Colum. L. Rev. 217 (1987).
6. Drafting an International Agency Agreement
Assigned Materials:
a. Gabriel Salinas, The Distribution Agreement in Mexico, 14 Law & Bus. Rev. Am. 783 (2008).
b. Overview of the Agency Law in the United Arab Emirates:
Ministry of Economy, Commercial Agent Guide:
http://business.abudhabi.ae/egovPoolPortal_WAR/appmanager/ADeGP/Business?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=p21406&lang=en.
Habib Al Mullah & Company, An Overview of UAE Agency Law, September 2011:
http://www.habibalmulla.com/Mediaresource/2ebd6e3f-5ea6-4d4f-bd80-19320094799e.pdf.
c. Model Form of International Sole Distributorship Contract.
7. International Franchising Agreements: Problems in Negotiations and Enforcement
Assigned Materials:
a. Gary R. Batenhorst, Breaking Up is Hard To Do: Challenges and Opportunities in Franchisor Buyback Rights and Obligations, 30 Franchise L. J. 97 (2010).
b. Yusuf Ahmed Alghanim & Sons v. Toys “R” Us, Inc., Tru (HK) Limited 126 F. 3d 15 (1997).
c. MMP GmbH Network (formerly Antal International GmbH) v Antal International Network Ltd., Queen’s Bench Division, Commercial Court, [2011] All ER (D) 40 May, [2011] EWHC 1120 (Comm).
d. Model Form of Franchise Agreement.
8. Drafting Joint Ventures and Licensing Agreements
Assigned Materials:
a. Thomas A. Piraino, Jr., The Antitrust Analysis of Joint Ventures after the Supreme Court’s Dagher Decision, 57 Emory L.J. 735 (2008).
b. Murthy, Divya Future of Compulsory Licensing: Deciphering the Doha Declaration on the TRIPs Agreement and Public Health, 17 Am. U. Int'l L. Rev. 1299 (2002).
c. Joint Venture Contract between Deyang Guangshi Network Development Ltd. and Big Sky Network Canada Ltd.
d. Standard Technical License Agreement Issued by the Korean Ministry of Finance.
e. Model Form of Concession Contract.
9. Performance of International Commercial Contracts
Assigned Materials:
a. Text of UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts (2010), Section on Performance.
b. Dr. Theo Rauh, Legal Consequences of Force Majeure Under German, Swiss, English and United States’ Law, 25 Denv. J. Intl'l L. & Pol’y 151 (1996).
c. Dionysios P. Flambouras, The Doctrines of Impossibility of Performance and Clausula Rebus Sic Stantibus in the 1980 Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods and the Principles of European Contract Law – A Comparative Analysis, 13 Pace Int’l L. Rev. 261 (2001).
10. Hardship in International Commercial Contracts
Assigned Materials:
a. Text of UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts (2010), Section on Hardship.
b. Margarita T.B. Coale, Stabilization Clauses in International Petroleum Transactions, 30 Denv. J. Intl'l L. & Pol’y 217 (2002).
c. Scott D. Slater, Overcome By Hardship: The Inapplicability of the UNIDROIT Principles’ Hardship Provisions to CISG, 12 Fla. J. Int'l L. 231 (1998).
d. Scafom International BV v. Lorraine Tubes S.A.S., Belgium, Court of Cassation, 19 June 2009: http://cisgw3.law.pace.edu/cases/090619b1.html#cx.
11. Damages in International Commercial Contracts
Assigned Materials:
a. Text of UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts (2010), Section on Damages.
b. Benjamin West Janke and Francois-Xavier Licarie, Enforcing Punitive Damage Awards in France after Fountaine Pajot, 60 Am. J. Comp. L. 775 (2012).
c. Travis Newport, Tortious Interference with International Contracts, 9 Currents: International Trade Law Journal 80 (2000).
d. Zapata Hermanos Sucesores, S.A. v. Hearthside Baking Company, Inc., 313 F. 3d 385 (2002).
12. International Commercial Arbitration
Assigned Materials:
a. Charles N. Browner and Jeremy K. Sharpe, International Arbitration and the Islamic World: The Third Phase, 97 Am. J. Int’l L. 643 (2003).
b. Judd Epstein, Centennial World Congress on Comparative Law: The Use of Comparative Law in Commercial International Arbitration and Commercial Mediation, 75 Tul. L. R. 913 (2001).
c. William K. Slate, Seth H. Lieberman, Joseph R. Weiner, Marko Micanovic, UNCITRAL (United Nations Commission on International Trade Law): Its Workings in International Arbitration and a New Model Conciliation Law, 6 Cardozo J. Conflict Resol. 73 (2004).
d. The Cairo Regional Center for International Commercial Arbitration, Award of 11 March 1999, case no. 1089/1998.
13. International Commercial Contracts and Human Rights
Assigned Materials:
a. Text of the U.N. Convention Against Corruption, 2003.
b. Text of OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions, 1997.
c. Text of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), 15 U.S.C. § 78dd-2, 1998.
d. Text of Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1307) as amended by Section 411 of the U.S. Trade and Development Act, 2000 (Pub. L. 106-200).
e. Mohamed Mattar, Corporate Liability for Violations of International Human Rights Law, in Labour Migration, Human Trafficking and Multinational Corporations – The Commodification of Illicit Flows 9 (Ato Quayson and Antonela Arhin, 2012).
f. Ethan S. Burger & Mary S. Holland, Why the Private Sector is Likely to Lead the Next Stage in the Global Fight against Corruption, 30 Fordham Int’l L.J. 45 (2006).
g. Evan P. Lestelle, The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, International Norms of Foreign Public Bribery, and Extraterritorial Jurisdiction, 83 Tul. L. Rev. 527 (2008).
h. Eric Engle, Extraterritorial Corporate Criminal Liability: A Remedy for Human Rights Violations?, 20 ST. JOHN’S J.L. COMM. 287 (2006).
i. R v Messent, Court of Appeal (Criminal Division), [2011] EWCA Crim 644.