The world economy has changed significantly in the past two decades. This specialism focuses on two main factors behind this trend.

One of them is the liberalisation of economic activities, which is manifested in the opening to competition of a number of key sectors (telecommunications, transport, postal services) at the national level and in the increase in international trade. The second one is the crucial relevance of ‘information’ and ‘knowledge’ in the world economy.

As a result of these mutations, the legal disciplines covered in this specialism have acquired major practical importance. The sectors that were formerly organised around a State-owned monopoly are now subject to competition rules. International trade is subject to the rules of the World Trade Organisation. These mirror, and are complemented by, the Treaties governing trade at the regional level (including the European Union). Finally, the rise of intellectual property rights (think of ‘patent wars’ among mobile handset manufacturers, the debates over the patentability of genetic material or over the adequate level of copyright protection in the Internet era) is a very visible trend.

Given the ‘transnational’ nature of these three disciplines, these modules provide a global perspective on the issues. Instead of focusing on a single jurisdiction, class discussions typically revolve around the principles underlying the law and its practical implementation.

Similarly, an emphasis is placed on the interface between disciplines, which greatly overlap one another in their logic and objectives. Some modules are at the crossroads of disciplines (e.g. EU State Aid Law). Others discuss how one discipline influences another (for instance, the rise of intellectual property has greatly influence the evolution of competition rules and their scope of application).

For further details about the courses of the program, please refers on this link.