Disclaimer: Should there be any future extenuating circumstances which may impinge our teaching and assessment, these could necessitate modification of the course descriptions after 1 September. This will only happen in the event of strict necessity and the interests of the students will be taken into account. Should there be a need for any change during the course, this will be informed to all students on a timely basis. Modifications after 1 September 2023 may only be done with the approval and consent of the Faculty Board and Programme Director.
COURSE CONTENT
This course provides students with an in-depth comparative overview and analysis of the law of property, including intellectual property rights and leasing and factoring transactions. The course covers several topics that will be analysed and discussed from both a theoretical and a practical point of view. After a general introduction on the content and nature of the law of property, the course will examine the original acquisition and the transfer of property in both the civil law and the common law. Specific attention will be given to a number of special types of transfer of property. A second major topic within this course is proprietary security rights in the civil and the common law. Due to their practical relevance as cornerstones of economic development and growth, especially in the areas of banking and finance, proprietary security rights are of special interest to unification projects such as the UNCITRAL Model Law on Secured Transactions that has been adopted on 1 July 2016. In practice, however, unification is still pending – the UNCITRAL Model Law is only a set of guidelines – and therefore practitioners are facing several difficulties in the completion of secured transactions in an international setting. As an example of a field of commerce where property law principles and proprietary security rights issues are applied in legal practice, some factoring and leasing transactions will be analysed. More specifically, this part of the course will focus on cross-border aspects of leasing and factoring. A third major topic within this course is IP rights. IP rights play an important and growing role in international trade. An overview of the different IP rights – patents, trademarks, designs and copyrights – will be followed by an analysis of the transactional aspects of IP rights. Specific topics, such as internet related infringement issues, will also be dealt with. The course will conclude with a session on specific private international law issues such as the applicable conflict of laws rules in property law matters and the recognition and enforcement of foreign proprietary security rights.
CONTACT
Programme Coordinator LLM (Adv) International Civil and Commercial Law
Office for International Education / Leiden Law School
E: iccl@law.leidenuniv.nl
COURSE COORDINATOR
Dr. Jeroen van der Weide E: j.a.van.der.weide@law.leidenuniv.nl
METHOD OF INSTRUCTION
Interactive lectures, (oral) presentations & field trips (combined with online components if necessary).
EXAMINATION
Written exam (75%)
Oral presentation with underlying paper (25%)
The overall course grade should be at least 5,5 in order to complete the course successfully.
There will be one retake (100%) substituting all previous assessments. It will be up to the discretion of the examiner to decide on the form of the retake.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Full degree in law granting access to the legal profession (or equivalent).