Courses 2023

Austrian Arbitration Academy

Unit 1 & Unit 2

The Austrian Arbitration Academy is a two-week intensive program within the univie: summer school for International and European Studies for both regular students of the summer school and participants who take part only in this special arbitration course.

It addresses the following groups of participants:

• Students and Law School Graduates interested in the world of international dispute resolution
• Young Practitioners looking for a comprehensive course giving them first-hand insights from the world of international arbitration

Professor Paul Oberhammer acts as course director.

The classes will be taught by first class international arbitration practitioners from both the bar and academia including:

• Claudia Annacker, Partner, Dechert LLP (Paris)
• Michelle Glassman Bock, Partner, Squire Batton Boggs (Brussels)
• Christian Koller, Professor, University of Vienna
• Christian W. Konrad, Partner, Konrad & Partners (Vienna)
• Helmut Ortner, Managing Partner, Peters Ortner Partners (Vienna)
• Friederike Schäfer, Partner, Zeiler Floyd Zadkovich (Vienna)
• Patricia Shaughnessy, Professor, Stockholm University 

The Austrian Arbitration Academy program takes place from July 15 to July 29, 2023 and consists of 64 contact hours. (Each contact hour consists of 45 minutes class time.)

Classes will be held Monday to Friday mornings with an introductory session on Sunday, July 16. In additional afternoon and evening workshops the participants will discuss salient issues of international arbitration with special guests from the international arbitration community.

On July 28 a written exam will take place. On the day before the exam, a special Q&A session will help the participants to prepare for the exam.

Successful participants will receive the University of Vienna Austrian Arbitration Academy diploma.

The classes will cover the following issues:

• Introduction to International Arbitration
• The Arbitration Clause
• The Arbitral Tribunal
• The Arbitral Proceedings
• The Arbitral Award
• The Challenge of the Award
• The Enforcement of the Award
• Introduction to Investment Arbitration

European Monetary Union

In no other area has European integration advanced as much as in the monetary sphere. By joining the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), 20 countries of the European Union have given up their national currencies and their monetary sovereignty and have created a common monetary area with a joint central banking system (Eurosystem) and a common European currency (euro). On the one hand, the euro – in form of notes and coins – provides a strong common European symbol. On the other hand, it is a powerful policy instrument.

The financial, economic and debt crisis and the COVID-crisis revealed the power of monetary policy. Starting in 2008 the Eurosystem has implemented a series of unconventional monetary policy measures ranging from negative policy rates to asset purchase programs. More recently, during the COVID-19 crisis, monetary-policy support for the European economy was again in demand and the Eurosystem continued to expand its toolbox of unconventional monetary policy measures. Most recently, since 2021, like in other parts of the world, the fight against strongly risen inflation has become the top priority for the Eurosystem.

This course will enable to answer the following questions:

• What are the objectives and instruments of different areas of economic policy (fiscal policy, structural reforms, financial stability policy)? What is the division of labour with central banks?
• Is the euro area an “optimal currency area” as described in textbooks?
• Why are central banks independent institutions?
• Why do most central banks have an inflation target? And why in many cases of 2%?
• Will central banks globally manage to bring soaring inflation back to target?
• How do central banks influence economic growth and inflation?
• Which instruments do central banks have at their disposal? What is the difference between conventional and unconventional instruments? How do they work?
• What are the challenges in the current institutional design of the euro area? What has been changed/improved in response to the Global Financial Crisis and the COVID crisis?
• What are the different views on the further development and deepening of the euro area?

Requirements: Active class participation (20%), mid-term exam (40%) and final exam (40%).

This course is regularly organized with the support of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank).

The Institutional Framework of the European Union

Contrasting Theory and Practice

The course will focus on the unique political system of the European Union. Students will be introduced to the main institutions playing a role in the decision-making process and to some of the main decision-making procedures.

The course very much builds on the active participation of participants. Group work, debates and a simulation exercise form an integral part of the program.

The first part of the course will focus on the Institutional Framework of the EU by examining:

• The main sources of EU Law and where relevant their repercussions on the institutional framework
• The role of the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Council of Ministers and the Court of Justice of the European Union within the EU’s institutional framework (and where relevant their evolution during the process of European integration)

This section will be based on lectures, class discussions and debates on such critical questions as the quality of democracy in the EU and the rise of Euroscepticism.

The second part will concentrate on policy making within the European system by looking at:

• Some of the main decision making procedures (with a focus on the ordinary legislative procedure, formerly co-decision)
• The role of non-institutional actors such as interest groups and NGOs in the EU’s decision making process

This part will close with a simulation of a Council Working Party about an EU regulation (using authentic material), where students will either take on the role of an EU Member State or represent one of the EU institutions.

Requirements: General class participation, group presentation and participation in joint seminars (30%), participation in role play (20%) and a final exam (50%).

It is recommended to take this course in conjunction with Dr. Bernhard Schima’s course: European Union Law.

European History since 1815

Political, Economic, Social, and Cultural Trends

Europe changed in the last 200 years dramatically: borderlines moved, economy and society changed, there were breaks and continuations in the development of all countries. Without looking to the long history of the European continent one cannot understand Europe of today.

Many phenomena of the 19^th and 20^th century had a large impact on the identity constructions of European countries. Discussions about phenomena like former political structures, multi-nationalism, national identity, minorities etc. between participants of different countries and cultures will allow comparisons and connect this class to problems of the present. The course attaches great importance to culture, as this topic is - talking about Europe - often neglected.

The course deals in a broad way with all European countries, but has a clear focus on Central Europe and will cover the following topics:

• What is Europe? Antique heritage - Christianity
• What is Europe? Enlightenment - Human Rights
• European Countries 1815 – 1918 – 1945 – 1989; Political systems in Europe including Fascism and Communism - Politicial Parties
• Industrialization - Demgraphic development - Urbanization - Migration
• Racism - Antisemitism - Genocide in Europe
• Social changes (from a Class Society to Modern Society) - The East West Conflict and the Iron Curtain - Globalization and Colonialism - Cold war - The building of the European Union
• Nationalism – National States versus Multinational Giants
• Selected Examples of Cultural Changes I: Progress and Ecological Ideas - Housing
• Selected Examples of Cultural Changes II: Nutrition, Drinking Habits 

Requirements: Attendance and participation in class discussion constitute 30%, a short paper 30% and a written final (essay-type) 40% of the grade.

European Private Law - The Civilian Tradition

The course offers a historical and comparative introduction to European Private Law.

Today’s variety of legal systems in Europe can't be properly understood without reference to European Legal History. Thus, one part of the course will be devoted to the development of European Private Law and the specific contribution of the Civilian Tradition. Particular attention is given to the dominant forces of law making in the different legal systems: magistrates and legal experts in Ancient Roman Law, professors and clergymen in Medieval Law, judges in the Common Law and legislators in Modern Continental Law.

Furthermore, basic concepts of Private Law such as property, good faith in contractual dealings and the role of fairness in extra contractual obligations will be dealt with in this course in a comparative perspective. This will be done mainly in form of discussions about specific cases. Special emphasis will be placed on the discussion of possible solutions, the analysis of court decisions and the evaluation of legislative choices.

A guest lecture by former Advocate General of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) Prof. Verica Trstenjak will treat current issues of EU Private Law, outlining the pertinent legislation in the area of EU Consumer Protection Law and Copyrights, and presenting selected Case Law of the ECJ.

• I. The Landscape of European Private Law: Diversity and Common Traditions
• The various meanings of "European Private Law" and the Legal Traditions in Europe
• Variations of a Theme: Transfer of Property in European Legal Systems
• The Scope of Information Duties in Civil Law and in Common Law
• Good Faith in European Contract Law
• Extra contractual Obligations: the Witty Genealogist’s Case




• II. Lawyers, Judges, Legislators. The Making of European Law
• Roman and Medieval Law: The Jurists' Role in the Development of Law as a Science
• Differences in Style and Substance: Codification(s) of Private Law in Continental Europe
• Common Law and Civil Law: The Role of Judges as Law Makers




• III. EU Private Law: Guest Lectures by Prof. Verica Trstenjak
• EU Legislation in the Area of Consumer Protection and Copyrights
• The Impact of the ECJ on the Evolution of EU Private Law

Requirements: Regular attendance and active participation in class discussions (40%) and an open-book essay exam (60%).

International Refugee Law and Policy

This course explores international refugee law and policy in theory and practice. It provides an introduction to the concepts and causes of irregular migration and refugee flows, the history and key features of international refugee law, and it explores the refugee situation and systems in a range of countries. The course examines the international obligations under the Convention and Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees and outlines the present laws and policies in relation to asylum seekers. The course further looks at irregular migration and forced migration more broadly with a special emphasis on smuggling of migrants and trafficking in persons.

The discussions, exercises, and working-group sessions during the course invite students to critically reflect on the situation of refugees and displaced persons, on the nature and objectives of international refugee law, and the rationale of international, regional, and domestic policies in this field. Moreover, the course seeks to improve communication, teamwork, argumentative, presentation, and research skills. The course enhances students’ abilities to research relevant material, critically analyse policy documents and legislation, case studies and scholarly writing, and elaborate practical recommendations for law reform and policy change.

Assessment: seminar exercises and participation (30% of final grade), mid-course exam (20%) and group project with oral presentation (50%).

European Thought and Culture in the 20th-century

This course introduces students to three major centers of 20th-century European thought: Vienna, Frankfurt and Paris. Students will learn the intellectual and cultural history of major ideas that shape our thinking to this day such as Viennese Modernism, the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, and French existentialism. The course follows a chronological order from the turn of the century, World War I and the interim war period to World War II and its aftermath.

Course objectives:

• introduce students to the most important concepts and ideas in European social and critical thought
• teach students to understand these concepts within their historical and cultural contexts
• enable them to make conceptual links between the various ideas and modes of thinking
• teach them to discern and make philosophical arguments and think analytically about an issue
• familiarize them with the richness, depth and passion of European thinkers during one of the most cataclysmic historical time periods on the continent

Requirements: Reading all course materials (30%), active and regular attendance (30%), final exam (40%)

Business and Human Rights

One of the fastest growing areas in human rights practice is the effort to achieve full respect for international human rights law and norms by private business. Many national and international instruments have been adopted in this field during the last years.

The course explores the links between human rights violations and corporate activity, and the importance of international standards in strengthening respect and protection of human rights. For this purpose, it will deal with the relationship between international/transnational corporations, international economic law as well as human rights law and corporate social responsibility. It will address existing human rights and investment law treaties as well as soft law instruments, for example the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and Corporate Social Responsibility Requirements. We will cover issues concerning substantive protection standards as well as matters of jurisdiction and dispute resolu-tions in case of human rights violations by corporations.

Teaching will vary between interactive lectures encouraging student participa-tion, traditional lectures and case studies. Student presentations are required.

Requirements: Regular attendance and participation (50%) as well as a presentation (50%).

Contemporary European History

Milestones of European History 1945-2022

In order to understand the decision making of the European Union in 2022 it is necessary to analyze the milestones of European history after the end of World War II in 1945 in a geopolitical context. The Super Power confrontation, the “Cold War”, between the US leading the Western Bloc and the Soviet Union dominating the Communist Bloc system shaped the development of the “West”. This development of superpower confrontation was influenced by fears of Atomic Warfare in the 1950s and 1960s but contained by efforts of Détente in the 1970s. The formation of the western alliance of NATO and the European integration with the Council of Europe and the European Coal and Steel Community are a result of the Cold War. Simultaneously the Soviet Union changes the economic and political structure of the Communist East and Southeast in Europe establishing the military system of the Warsaw Pact and the economic socialist counterpart of the European Economic Community, the Comecon.

In this course, we shall analyze and discuss the reasons for the first major integration step, the foundation of the European Economic Community (EEC) in Rome in 1957 with six member states. Still the US plays a major role as a hidden hand mediator helping to overcome the still strong resentments between France and Western Germany. Individual European decision makers like Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, Konrad Adenauer and others played an important role to overcome deep routed prejudices and hatred.

Already in the 1960s – a few years after the establishment of the EEC – the French President Charles De Gaulle vetoed the decision-making and hindered an integration of Great Britain – until 1973.

Under Jacques Delors, President of the European Commission 1985-1995 the EU already seems to fall behind Asia and the US in economic terms during the beginning globalization. Delors convinced the EU member states to move towards a strong and tight political, economic and military union (the later outside NATO). The unexpected end of the Cold War 1989/1991 and the mostly peaceful political transformations in the former Communist countries of Eastern Europe and the Russia reduced this strategy to the economic union and a common currency.

The enlargement from 15 member states in 1995 to 28 and the negative effects of the world financial and economic crisis since 2008 as well as the recent migration and refugee flows pushes the EU into an unknown direction and forces the necessity of total reform.

After Brexit and the UK leaving the European Community the EU is facing a major and deep crisis with an open end in the growing geostrategic and economic struggles between the US, China, Russia and the EU. These economic and political problems are influenced by the EU-responses to the negative effects of the Covid-19 crisis hitting the international community world-wide. By analyzing the soft but very important emotional basis of Europeanism like identity, value systems and culture after 1945 as well as the integrative impacts of institutions like the European Court of Justice and the European Court for Human Rights options for the future of the EU will be presented and debated.

Requirements: Your final score will be made up of the following three elements: participation in class room discussions (20%), oral presentation of a short paper on a topic of the course based on provided literature and supported research (3-4 pages) (40%), and writing an individual final essay on a broad general topic of the course written in class during the final exam (40%).

European Union Law

The Court of Justice of the EU and the Internal Market

This course is designed to help students understand the system of judicial protection in European Union (EU) law and the importance of the contribution of the Court of Justice of the EU to the development of the Internal Market.

This course will:

• discuss the various judicial remedies in the EU legal order with particular emphasis on the infringement procedure and the preliminary reference procedure;
• explain the concept of an internal market;
• explore how the Court of Justice in its case-law has contributed to making the free movement of goods, persons, services and capitals operational, and
• look at the interplay between the Court's case-law and secondary Union legislation establishing the Internal Market.

Requirements: Performance will be assessed on the basis of a short quiz (30% of the grade) at the end of the first week and a written final exam (60%). Class participation will be taken into account (10%).

This course, which looks at European integration from a legal perspective, is recommended for students with prior knowledge of the institutions of the European Union or who have taken Andrea Lenschow's course: The Institutional Framework of the European Union.

Law and Information Society in Europe

This course will focus on European and global trends in the legal regulation of information and communication. Specific attention will be attributed to privacy, data protection, platform regulation, AI-regulation and information security in a globalized information society. We will work in particular on the relevant European regula tions, directives and case law and will compare them with other legal, technical and social approaches.

Topics:

• Law as Code and Code as Law? The relations between technical, social, economical and legal forms of regulation
• Regulation of Information: The European approach
• Transparency, Privacy, and Data Protection: outdated concepts in an information society?
• Platforms and their control
• AI and their control
• Identity, Authenticity, and Security in a globalized network-environment

Recommended Reading: Lawrence Lessig, Code and other Laws of Cyberspace; additional texts and cases will be distributed throughout the course.

Requirements: Regular attendance and active participation in class discussions (40%) and an open-book essay exam (60%).

EU Political Systems in a Comparative Perspective

This course familiarizes students with the major theoretical, empirical and substantive issues in contemporary European politics. First, the course examines the different governmental institutions, electoral systems and party systems across the member states of the European Union and their impact on political processes and the society. Second, it focuses on the different social cleavages in these political systems and their changes over time. Third, the course analyzes the recent electoral behavior of the European electorate both in national and European Parliament elections and its repercussions on European party systems. The course aims at deepening the understanding of the main debates in contemporary European politics using a comparative approach.

Requirements: Performance will be assessed on the basis of attendance and participation in class discussions (20%), a role play taking different party positions and government negotiations into account (40%) and a written final exam (40%).

Principles of International Economics - A European Perspective

This course covers both the (microeconomic) trade and the (macroeconomic) monetary aspects of international economics with European applications.

In the first part we examine standard trade theories (Ricardo, Heckscher-Ohlin, Krugman) and explain the gains from trade, the distributional impact of trade (internationally and among groups within countries), and the pattern of trade. The arguments for free trade and for trade restrictions are evaluated and different trade policies are discussed. EU trade policy serves as an example. We also discuss the conflicts between trade creation and trade diversion. Finally, we look into the economics of the internal market of the EU and the economic consequences of migration and factor movements.

The second part opens with a discussion of balance of payments accounting and analyses the determination of exchange rates and the development of international financial markets. Stabilization policies and their impact on output, employment, and prices in different exchange rate regimes are examined in the final part of the course.

In short workshop sessions students will be invited to answer questions and discuss various economic problems in short presentations.

Requirements: The final grade will primarily be based on two short written examinations (together 80%) at the end of each week. Participation in class and at least one presentation in the workshop (20%) are also required.