European Private Law

Administration of the Course

Until further notice, classes in the spring term 2021 will only be offered online. The link for each session of Prof. Atamer’s classes will be made available here.

Information concerning the lectures of the other professors can be found on their respective websites.

Content

Although Switzerland is not formally a Member State of the European Union, European legislation is highly relevant for Swiss courts and jurisprudence, given that Swiss economic law was inspired by EU law to a high extent. The most important examples stem from fields such as EU Consumer Law, EU Competition Law, EU Company Law and EU Insurance Law. Building on the four market freedoms and the efforts of legislative alignment within the EU Single Market, the course aims at presenting the main precepts of substantive private law created by the European Union and to make students aware of the peculiarities of its application in Member States as well as in Non-Member States such as Switzerland. In the allotted four weeks Professor Atamer will focus on EU Consumer Law and give an overview of the legislation so far adopted and the future tendencies in the EU. The students will be motivated to discuss why and when consumers need to be protected by law as well as how this protection can be best granted. These insights will then be used to analyse Swiss law of consumer protection and to fathom whether it needs improvement in some areas.

Prerequisites

• Students should have attended at least a general contract law course.
• A good command of English is essential.

Syllabus

The necessary course material will be provided on a weekly basis before the respective classes. The PPT and the recordings of each session will be made available after each class. Interested students may consult Howells/Twigg-Flesner/Wilhelmsson: Rethinking EU Consumer Law, 2018

The PPT presentations can be found here.

The podcast are available here.

The exam is set in oral form. The focus will lie on i) comprehension, ii) application, and iii) interpretation of the law. More specifically, it is expected that you can solve basic examples and show understanding of the subject matter (i.e. the directives and case law discussed in class) by elaborating, commenting or providing your opinion on the relevant problems.