Basics of Contract and Consumer Law

The goal off the course is to enable students to acquire basic knowledge about the contracts, as  means of realizing the trade of goods and services, as well as the mechanisms for consumer protection.  Special attention will be paid to the contracts regulating the relations in the sphere of energy, electronic communications and transport, as well as the consumer protection in this contracts.  Through this program, students will be able to: – independently identify and critically analyze the basic concepts of contract law, – develop skills for applying acquired knowledge in practice in concluding contracts, successful implementation of contracts and resolving disputes that will arise from contracts, – to identify the rights of the consumers and the mechanism for their protection.

The course aims to familiarize students with the legal framework regulating the contracts and the consumers’ rights in the Republic of Macedonia and the European Union. The course deals with the basic rules that apply to contracts in general, as well as to specific domestic legislation and international contract rules and standards that refer to specific types of contracts . Special emphasis will be placed on the principles of European contract law (Lando Principals), the Vienna Convention on International Sales for Goods, the UNIDROIT Principles on International Trade Agreements, and the numerous conventions whose content applies to specific types of contracts. At the same time, attention will be paid to the practical aspects of concluding contracts and their implementation, disputes that may arise and the ways to resolve them. The course, therefore, covers the practical aspects of the contracts and their specificities. Particular attention will be paid to the role of specific types of contracts in the domestic and international trade. With this particular emphasis will be given to the contracts that are relevant for the sphere of energy, electronic communications and transport. In view of the special importance these contracts have for he topics related to the consumers’ rights as buyers of goods or users of services will also be processed. Within the program, the basic rights of the consumers and the ways of their realization and protection will be identified. Within this framework, particular attention will be given to the rights of the consumers as users of service, on the one hand, and the obligations of service providers on the other. These issues will be examined in terms of their domestic and European Union law.

The course will be delivered through interacive lectures, practical assignments, simulations and case analysis, video-presentations, role plays etc.