| CODE | CML1001 | ||||||||
| TITLE | Basic Notions of Commercial Law | ||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 01 - Year 1 in Modular Undergraduate Course | ||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 5 | ||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 4 | ||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Commercial Law | ||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | This study-unit examines the nature of Commercial Law, the place of commercial law in the private law sphere, and investigates the sources of commercial law in their order of priority, namely written commercial law, usages of trade and civil law. This study-unit introduces students to the important notion of "act of trade", its distinction from an act of a civil nature and its relevance in the whole commercial - private law sphere. It also deals with the classification of acts of trade while providing a detailed analysis of what constitutes an objective act of trade and a subjective act of trade, accessory acts of trade and mixed acts of trade. The definition of a trader and the legal requirements for becoming a trader are also comprised in this unit. Lectures will draw the distinction between incompatibility and incapacity to trade and explain the emancipation of minors to trade, the procedure for emancipation and the manner of its termination. N.B. This part of the study-unit is based on the introductory articles of the Maltese Commercial Code namely articles 2 to12. The second part of this study-unit provides an overview of the various forms of business organisations used by the business community with particular reference to commercial partnerships. It seeks to provide students with a comprehensive overview of the various forms of business organisations used by the business community in Malta. Students will be introduced to those forms of business which have become less popular since the rise of the private limited company. These include the partnership en nom collectif which used to be much more popular with Maltese traders until about 50 years ago. The unit will delve into the nature, characteristics and liability of the partners in such partnership form. Study-unit Aims: - To introduce students to Commercial Law and to the Commercial Code; - To enable students to understand the area covered by commercial law and the distinction and inter-relationship between commercial law and civil law in the Maltese juridical system; - To train students to grasp and utilise the important notions of acts of trade and trader, which are fundamental for future studies in Commercial Law; -To assist students to master the various forms of business organisations used by the business community and to be able to distinguish between the various forms and their respective advantages and disadvantages; - To enable students to understand the nature of the Partnerships en nom collectif and en commandite and to be able to compare the features and objectives of these two traditional forms of doing business; - To ensure students fully understand the concept of limited and the unlimited liability of the partners for obligations of the partnership and the risks involved in assuming such types of liability; - To enable students to understand the concept of the business concern and its relevance in modern commercial practice. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Grasp the basic Notions of Commercial Law and the provisions of the Commercial Code in order to enable them to undergo more advanced studies offered in later study-units; - Gain familiarity with the important notion of an act of trade and whether or not it is necessary and/or desirable to have a legal distinction between acts of trade and acts of a civil nature and to appreciate the legal provisions relating to capacity to trade; - Gain familiarity with the notion of business organisations and commercial partnerships in particular. 2. Skills By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Put into practice the important juridical concepts of "act of trade", "trader" and "commercial partnership" which are used by the law to determine the boundary line between the areas governed by commercial law and the areas covered by civil law; - Be better prepared to tackle the more advanced notions and principles of commercial law to be taught in later study-units; - Develop a good grounding in the basic concepts underlying the regulation of business activities in Malta and more generally the techniques adopted by the law to regulate this important sector of the economy. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: - Commercial Code - The Companies Act (Chapter 386, Laws of Malta) - Andrew Muscat, “Principles of Maltese Company Law”, Malta University Press, 2019 - Gower, “Principles of Modern Company Law”, Sweet & Maxwell, 2016 - Cremona, F. & Micallef, J.A., “Notes on Maltese Commercial Law” (available from the Għaqda Studenti tal-Liġi [GħSL]) - Vivante, Cesare (1922-1935), “Trattato di Diritto Commerciale” (facsimile reproductions are available at the library). |
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| ADDITIONAL NOTES | Students taking this study-unit need to have a background in law. | ||||||||
| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture | ||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Tiziana Filletti (Co-ord.) Neville John Gatt |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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