From international to comparative private law, from foundational frameworks to new technologies, this comprehensive Master prepares students for a variety of careers in the field. Take advantage of a unique partnership of institutions, academics and legal professionals to grip the complexity of the laws of global trade.
Learn by doing, through case studies, workshops, and group exercises
Exchange ideas with international students and faculty
Engage with experts from the ILO and other international organizations
This Master aims to provide participants with an in-depth understanding of the main legal issues concerning international commercial contracts, from contract drafting to dispute resolution, with an emphasis on recent developments and the increasing complexity of contract law, including the impact of new technologies and the role of compliance for MNEs. It also covers the key international institutional and legal frameworks for international trade and investment, and incorporates a dedicated module on international dispute settlement, international commercial arbitration and transnational domestic litigation.
This Master has been designed for recent university graduates who intend to work in the fields of international trade law, for example in law firms, corporate legal departments, governments, international organizations, and academic or research institutions. Law consultants, practitioners, and young managers wishing to expand their knowledge in the field of international trade law would also benefit from this Master.
From 1991 to 2010 the International Training Centre of the ILO, the University of Turin, and the University Institute of European Studies (IUSE), in collaboration with other world-class universities, offered a shortened version of this Master as a postgraduate course in international trade law.
It was expanded and upgraded to a Master of Laws in International Trade in 2010-2011. This decision was taken in recognition of the increasing demand for higher levels of legal specialization and career development in the field of international trade, and coincided with the decision to establish the Turin School of Development as a unique mechanism for the delivery of joint UN-academic Masters.
UNCITRAL – a historical partner – endorsed the new Master and accepted the status of a full partner in 2010 while UNIDROIT joined the Master as a partner in 2019.
In addition, international organizations such as WTO, UNCTAD, EU, and ICC, as well as renowned universities, have played an important role in the Master and delegated officials and faculty members respectively to join the Scientific Committee and/or to participate in Master delivery.
Students gain the fundamental tools and competencies needed to handle the complexities of international commercial transactions.
During this first phase, while being trained on perspectives, actors and sources of international trade, students will be given basic or more in-depth knowledge on issues, which will be covered in or will be complementary to the Face-to-Face Phase, respectively.
During this phase, participants will have access to an on-line platform, through which they will be given the materials, send their assignments and interact in forums as a class, while receiving advisory support from a dedicated tutor. Assessment will be carried out on a regular basis and upon arrival in Turin.
During this second phase, students will learn in class, as well as through individual study and group work. Participation in classes is compulsory; classes are held every day from Monday to Friday from 9 am to 3.30 pm.
Subjects include: comparative contract law, harmonization of private law, aspects relating to international commercial contracts such as the CISG, UPICC, carriage of goods, IPRs and technology, e-commerce, insurance law, state contracts; relevant trade-related institutions, international trade and investment law, trade and competition, trade and IPRs; and international dispute settlement, arbitration systems and ADR, transnational domestic litigation.
This third phase consists of the submission of a final essay or a case analysis by October 2021 (30 pages approximately), supervised by an advisor and by the scientific coordinators.
The Master is structured in three parts: online learning, residential classes, and an individual paper.
This intensive, year-long Master combines online and residential work for students at different stages of their careers.
Students learn by studying, collaborating, and observing practitioners in action.
The core faculty of the Master is composed of:
The combination of academic resource persons and legal practitioners is a distinctive feature of this Master which enables smooth integration of theory with practice.
Participants will benefit from the support and involvement of Module coordinators and dedicated tutors who will assist and advise them throughout the learning period.
Alberto Oddenino, University of Turin
Anna Noel, Riedo Monferini Darioli & Noël
Carlo Cantore, WTO
Carlo De Stefano, PhD at Bocconi univeristy
Carlos Correa, South Center - University of Buenos Aires
Catharine Titi, University Paris II Panthéon-Assas
Clarisse von Wunschheim, University of Fribourg
Diana Akikol, Akikol, Béguin & Richa LLC
Elena D'Alessandro, University of Turin
Francesco Cannas, Marino&Associati Tax Law Firm
Gabriele Ruscalla, ICC- Paris
Giuseppe Casale, ITCILO, TSD Director
Gustavo Prieto, University of Turin
Isabelle Hering, ETUDE HERING
Jaakko Salminen, University of Turku
Kllas Eller, University of Tel Aviv
Laura Zoboli, University of Warsaw
Marina Motta, Motta e Associati
Martin Ebers, University of Berlin
Mateja Durovic, King’s College London
Monica Canafoglia, UNCITRAL
Niccolo Landi, Landi Legal
Ozlem Gurses, University of Southampton
Patrick O'Malley, Univeristy of Navarra
Patti Janega, Consultant
Philine Wehling, UNIDROIT
Pierre Tercier, International Court of Arbitration of the ICC
Riccardo Ventura, General Counsel, GM China
Roberto Caranta, University of Turin
Rupa Ganguli, Inclusive Trade Ltd, UK
Sabrina Strassburger, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles
Walter Stoffel, University of Fribourg
Zhaokang Jiang, GSC Potomac Corp. (US)
Gianmaria AJANI
Professor of Comparative private law, UniTo
Roberto CARANTA
Professor of Administrative Law, UniTo
Giuseppe CASALE
Director, Turin School of Development Director, ITCILO
Luca CASTELLANI
Legal officer, UNCITRAL
Mario COMBA
Professor of Comparative public law, UniTo
Elena GILARDI
Research Fellow, IUSE
Lorenza MOLA
Professor of International law - UniTo
Alberto ODDENINO
Professor of International law, UniTo
Cristina PONCIBÒ
Professor of Comparative private law, UniTo
Pierre TERCIER
Emeritus Professor, University of Fribourg, Switzerland; Honorary Chairman, ICC International Court of Arbitration
Anna VENEZIANO
Deputy Director, UNIDROIT
Franz WERRO
Professor of Law, University of Fribourg-Switzerland and Georgetown University Law Centre-United States
Anna Panarella, University of Turin.
Anna graduated in law with honors from the University of Turin with a final dissertation titled "Services of general economic interest and state aid law: an osmosis with public procurement law?".
In the last two years she collaborated with two law firms as a trainee lawyer, with a special focus on Italian civil law, and has been working as tutor for the International Law online course delivered by the Law Department of the University of Turin.
Since 2019, Anna is a PhD student in International Economic Law at the University of Turin.
Zeleke Temesgen Boru has completed his Ph.D from the University of Turin in Italy. Currently, he is also serving as a Tutor in the Legal Module of the Master in Public Procurement Management for Sustainable Development at the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organization (ITCILO).
Prior to joining the Ph.D. program, Zeleke has received his LLB Degree (gold medalist and top scorer) in Law from Mekelle University in Ethiopia in 2011. He has also received his MA in Economic Policy in Global Market from the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary in 2014. Furthermore, Zeleke has received his LLM in Comparative Law, Economics, and Finance from the International University College of Turin in 2015. He completed his LLM with an average of ‘A’ plus grade. Moreover, he has also received his Postgraduate Certificate in Public Service Diplomacy from the National University of Public Service in Hungary. He completed the Diplomacy program with a straight ‘A’ result.
From mid-2011 to 2012, Zeleke served at different positions in public and non-governmental institutions. For instance, he worked as an Assistant Attorney for Awash Insurance Company in Ethiopia. Aside from this, he worked as a Federal Public Prosecutor for the Ethiopian government. He was also an intern at the African Youth Foundation (AYF) in Bonn, Germany.
International public law: prof. Lorenza Mola
Lorenza Mola has been the Scientific Director of the Master of Law in International Trade Law since the academic year 2018-2019 and was on the board of coordinators in the previous four editions of the Master. Lorenza is an Associate Professor of International Law at the University of Turin, Department of Law, where she teaches international and EU law, and where she is a member of the board of the PhD in Law, the Individual and the Market. Lorenza holds a PhD in International Economic Law from “Bocconi” University (Milan) and an M.Sc. in European Studies (External Relations) from the Institut d’Etudes Européennes of the Université Libre de Bruxelles. She has authored a book on national security in international investment law (2010, in Italian) and published extensively in Italian and international scientific journals and edited books; her current research fields are in international economic law, international human rights law, and the law of EU external relations.
International contracts: prof. Cristina Poncibò
Cristina Poncibò: Having obtained the National Scientific Qualification (Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale) in the round 2012-2013, Cristina was appointed, on 3 June 2015, Associate Professor of Comparative Law at the Department of Law of the University of Turin. She is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Comparative and Transnational Law of the Department of Law, the Institute of European Studies (IUSE), and the Centre for Gender Studies. She is interested in all aspects of fundamental Comparative Law, with particular interests in methodological issues, Comparative Contract Law, Comparative Law & Development, Global Competition Law and Consumer Protection
Cristina hold a JD in European Law from the Faculty of Law, University of Turin (Italy, EU), with a grade of 110/110 magna cum laude and honourable mention, with a dissertation about The US Essential Facility Doctrine and European Competition Law (1997) and a PhD. in Comparative Law (2005) from the Faculty of Law, University of Florence, with a dissertation about The Models of Protection of Collective Rights in Comparative Law
Arbitration and ADR: prof. Roberto Caranta
Roberto Caranta, Professor of Administrative Law and Economic Law at the University of Torino. He is member of the Procurement Review Board of the European Space Agency. He is directing (with Steen Treumer) the European Procurement Law Series, DJØF, Copenhagen. He is member of both the research networks Public Contracts in Legal Globalization / Contrats Publics dans la Globalisation Juridique and PLAN – Procurement Law Academic Network.
The tuition fee is set at €8,500.
The fee includes:
Board, lodging, travel expenses, transports and personal expenses for the period in Turin are not included in the cost of participation.
The cost of accommodation (bed and breakfast) at the ITCILO campus during the 14 weeks' residential face-to-face part of the Master is 5,390 Euro.
However students may seek off-campus accommodation like in university residences where the rent is appreciably lower and is in the range of €400-600 per month (without laundry and food) or in private apartments.
Applicants interested in participating to this Master should complete and submit the application form by clicking on APPLY in the left upper corner of this page not later than 20 September 2020.
Important: only complete application forms will be considered during the candidate selection process.
For more information on the Master, please contact the course secretariat.
Applicants must have successfully completed a first level university degree of at least 3 years’ duration in law, economics, political sciences, business administration or equivalent.
The validity of non-Italian degrees must be recognized under Italian law and regulations.
The Master is entirely delivered in English. Knowledge of the English language is a pre-requisite and must be proven in the application form with supporting documents.
A limited number of partial fellowships may become available from sponsors in order to facilitate the participation of deserving candidates from developing and transition countries who are unable to meet the full tuition fees.
Participants are therefore expected to finance their participation as much as possible. The admission criteria will take into consideration the participant’s self-financing potential as well as his/her educational and professional profiles. In the application form, participants are kindly requested to indicate the portion of the tuition fees that they are able to finance.
Sponsoring institutions and self-paying participants are strongly encouraged to pay participation fees a month prior to the start date of the Master in order to secure enrollment and the timely issuance of visas. The individual participation fees are payable in full and all related bank charges (bank of origin, correspondent bank and recipient bank) shall be entirely borne by the participant or the sponsoring institution(s).
The payment schedule is as follows:
The exact deadlines by which the payments should be made will be announced along with the selection results.
Cancellation of participation will result in the following penalties:
Tuition fees
Accomodation fees
Refunds, where and as applicable, will be processed with all bank charges to be borne by the participants or the sponsoring institutions.
According to the Italian University System, there are two types of Masters: 1st level master and 2nd level master.
The only difference between them is the minimum educational background and academic qualification requirements to be enrolled in these masters: to be enrolled on a 1st level Master's, the minimum requirement is a bachelor degree (3 years); while for a 2nd level Master, the minimum requirement is a post-graduate degree (3 +2 years).
Therefore, pursuing our 1st level Master in International Trade Law, a first level master diploma will be awarded.
A First Level Master does not give access to PhD programmes. Admission requirements to PhD programmes vary from country to country, as these depend on the university system of the country where the PhD programme is held. For more information on the minimum requisites required, please directly contact the university offering the PhD programme you are interested in. As a general rule, for instance, a three-year bachelor's degree plus a first level master’s degree are not considered sufficient for doctoral studies at the University of Turin: both a bachelor’s and a two-year master's degree (second level) are usually required.
You should attach the documents requested in the Supporting Documents section of the on-line application form. Official documents should be scanned and uploaded. The compulsory documents include a copy of:
Important: The application form will be considered only if supported by the above listed documents.
You are expected to submit your application form not later than the 30th June 2018. Early applications are encouraged as eligible candidates will be accepted on "first come first served" basis. Applications will be reviewed by the Scientific Committee on regular basis and feedback will be provided within one month.
The selection criteria take into consideration candidates' education and professional profile as well as their self-financial potential.
According to ITCILO rules, accommodation is covered from the day before the beginning of the course (from Sunday) and to the day after the end of the course (to Saturday).
Any exception to the rule above should be approved by the Programme Manager.
The cost of accommodation on Campus is € 85 per night (bed and breakfast).
No, this Master includes a residential phase of 18 weeks. Attendance to this residential phase is compulsory, from Monday to Friday from 9 am to 3.30 pm.
No. During the 18 week residential part in Turin, you can decide to stay outside the ITCILO campus. However, we would recommend to look for a place not far from the campus because the training sessions start at 9 AM every day.
The cost of accommodation and subsistence during the residential phase of 18 weeks in our facilities is Euro 6,930 booked and payable in advance by the participant or his/her sponsoring organization.
The accommodation includes a single bedroom, laundry service and breakfast on the ITCILO Campus during the residential phase.
You can take a virtual tour of the ITCILO campus here: http://campuslife.itcilo.org/virtualtour
and check what's going on here http://campuslife.itcilo.org/
For general information on requirements, application, fees, accommodation, scholarships and diploma, please contact:
Course Secretariat
Master in International Trade Law
International Training Centre of the ILO
Viale Maestri del Lavoro, 10
10127 Turin, Italy
Phone: +39 011 69 36 178
e-mail: tradelaw@itcilo.org