Corsi di Studio del Dipartimento di Giurisprudenza

The course aims at enabling students to understand the structure and purposes of the main international organizations and of the other actors in the field of international economic law. In particular, it aims at providing the analytical tools for a basic understanding of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, their institutional and legal framework and their interconnections. The course will also focus on sovereign debt issues.

Students will be provided both with a solid background as well as a set of conceptual and critical tools for reflecting more deeply on the role of international financial institutions in the world economic order and the logics of sovereign debt.

Students should demonstrate a good knowledge, on the one hand, of the role of States, International financial institutions and private actors in international economic law and, on the other hand, of their impact on economic development and on the protection of fundamental rights

 

The course will be taught through the traditional learning model based on frontal lectures as well as through interactive lectures and group work actvities. Reference documents will be distributed to stimulate debate. Experts in specific fields may be invited as speakers.

Class recordings and reading materials will be made available through the teaching platform (Moodle). The platform will also be used to organise group activities.

It is therefore essential and compulsory that all the students enrol in the teaching platform to have full access to studying materials and for communication purposes.

Please, enroll on the Moodle platform at https://elearning.unito.it/scuolacle/course/view.php?id=2602

The first lecture will take place on the 20th of September 2020 at 12:00 (Rome time), in class (and on the Webex platform).

https://unito.webex.com/meet/anna.viterbo

EXAM MODALITIES for A.Y. 2021-2022

For students regularly attending class (either at University and/or on the Moodle platform) in a.y. 2021-2022

Evaluation: 

• 1) Group work participation (a breakout group exercise that will be organized towards the end of the course) = 25%
• 2) Research paper (3,500 to 4,000 words) = 75%

The research paper should focus on one of the topics discussed in class: it could be a general topic (for example, the IMF and human rights or odious debt) or a more specific case (a project funded by the IBRD or the IDA, a case brought before the Inspection Panel, the Haitian independence debt, etc).

I expect the submitted paper to be final (i.e. no amendments or updates allowed): no help in finding bibliographic material or other information will be provided; you are entirely responsible for bibliographic research and for writing the paper.

The minimum - maximum length is 3500 - 4000 words (bibliography and footnotes not included).

The research paper has to be submitted at least one week before the date of the exam in which the grade will be officially registered to allow for enough time for evaluation.

The final deadline to submit a research paper and to be evaluated as an attending student will be the 30th of June 2022.

No research paper will be accepted and evaluated after the 30th of June 2022.

Remember that PLAGIARISM is a serious academic offence. Therefore, every paper will be uploaded on Turnitin to check for plagiarism.

Before starting writing your research paper, please read the infografic on the plagiarism spectrum clicking the hyperlink.

 

2) Students passing the quiz with at least a grade of 20, will be allowed to propose a research topic on which to write their final paper.

Research papers should met the same requirements outlined above for attending students (selection of topic, lenght, check for plagiarism, submission at least a week before the exam date, etc).  

The final grade will be however calculated in this way: 50% test + 50% research paper.

 

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Expected learning outcomes (according to Dublin descriptors)

Knowledge and understanding: knowledge of the main topics analyzed during the course

Applying knowledge and understanding:ability to apply the knowledge acquired to understand relevant reading materials and news, to participate in a discussion or a conference, to understand experts

Making judgements: ability to recognize relevant research materials, to identify a research question, to structure the content of an essay, to interpret sources and to provide an answer to the research question 

Communication: ability to communicate the acquired knowledge, demonstrating an adequate capacity of synthesis and abstraction and using a clear and rigorous language (grammar included)

Lifelong learning skills:acquisition of an effective study method, ability to identify and interpret different problems and texts

Reference textbooks:

• Viterbo A., International Monetary Fund, Wolters Kluwer (in the series Encyclopedias: IEL Intergovernmental Organizations) 2019

 

• Sabine Schlemmer-Schulte, World Bank, Wolters Kluwer (in the series Encyclopedias: IEL Intergovernmental Organizations), 2014

 

• Viterbo, Sovereign Debt Restructuring: The Role and Limits of Public International Law, Giappichelli, 2020 (available as e-book)

 

• Qureshi and Ziegler, International Economic Law, Sweet&Maxwell, 2019, Parts 2 and 5