Master in International Trade Law

Master of Laws in International Trade Law (ed. 2021-2022)
Master

Master in International Trade Law

1 novembre 2024–31 octobre 2025
Le cours est disponible en English

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.

Key features
Modern methods

Learn by doing, through case studies, workshops, and group exercises

Inspiring discussions

Exchange ideas with international students and faculty

High-level resources

Engage with experts from the ILO and other international organizations

Présentation du Master

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 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.

Groupes cibles

This Master has been designed for recent university graduates who intend to work in the field 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 of international trade law would also benefit.

Trade law students around the world

Background

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.

What are the topics?

Students gain the fundamental tools and competencies needed to handle the complexities of international commercial transactions.

  • Compliance with trade-related transnational and international sets of rules 
  • Negotiation, drafting, and management of international commercial contracts 
  • International dispute resolution and arbitration
Detailed curriculum

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 2023 (30 pages approximately), supervised by an advisor and by the scientific coordinators.

What will I learn?

The Master is structured in three parts: online learning, residential classes, and an individual paper.

  • All about the legal issues concerning international commercial contracts
  • Key institutional and legal frameworks for international trade
  • How to prevent, mediate, and settle international disputes
  • The important impact of new technologies in the global trade environment
What will I be able to do?

This intensive, year-long Master combines online and residential work for students at different stages of their careers.

  • Leverage legal knowledge in the field of international trade law and transnational contract law
  • Utilize competencies for international public, private, and comparative legal analysis
  • Negotiate and draft contracts and plan for dispute resolution
Why should I enroll?

Students learn by studying, collaborating, and observing practitioners in action.

  • Students visit international organizations that work on international trade law.
  • Dedicated tutors are available to answer questions and provide support throughout the learning journey.
  • Teaching methodologies include lectures, workshops, case studies, and moot courts, as well as an online platform for readings, videos, and exercises.
Faculty

The core faculty of the Master is composed of:

  • law professors from renowned universities worldwide
  • professionals and law consultants from international law firms and legal departments of international corporations
  • experts and officials from UNCITRAL, UNIDROIT, ITC-ILO, WTO, ICC, EU and other international organizations

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.

  • Amy Schmitz, The Ohio State University
  • Alberto Odennino, University of Turin
  • Anna Noël, Etude Anna Noël
  • Anna Veneziano , UNIDROIT
  • Ben CZAPNIK, National University of Singapore
  • Bjorn Nissen, Shift Happens
  • Carlo Cantore, WTO
  • Carlos Correa, South Center - University of Buenos Aires
  • Carlo Di Nicola , UNIDROIT
  • Cristina Poncibò , University of Turin
  • Davide Rovetta , International Trade Advisor, Brussels
  • Elena D'Alessandro, University of Turin
  • Elena Gilardi, University of Turin
  • Enrico Bonadio, University of London
  • Enrico Canzio, Chief Counsel Banking Operations at
  • European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
  • Gabriele Ruscalla, ICC- Paris
  • Gianmaria Ajani, Univerisity of Turin
  • Giuseppe Casale, ITCILO
  • Isabelle Hering, Etude Hering
  • Lorenza Mola, UniTo
  • Luca Castellani, UNCITRAL
  • Luca Meduri , BasicNet
  • Ozlem Gurses, King’s College London
  • Luca Rubini , UniTo
  • Maria Belén Gracia, International trade law and policy expert
  • Martin Ebers, University of Tartu (Estonia)
  • Marva Corley-Coulibaly, ILO Geneva
  • Mateo Ferrero , WTO
  • Monica Canafoglia, UNCITRAL
  • Niccolo Landi, Landi Legal
  • Patrick O'Malley, Univeristy of Navarra
  • Philine Wehling, UNIDROIT
  • Pierre Tercier, International Court of Arbitration of the ICC
  • Pietro Ortolani, Radboud University, Netherlands
  • Reka Papp, Counsel, Pierre Tercier Bureau, Fribourg
  • Riccardo Ventura, Legal counsel
  • Roberto Caranta, University of Turin
  • Rupa Ganguli , International Trade Specialist
  • Stefano Azzali, Secretary General of the Milan Chamber of Arbitration
  • Zhaokang JIANG , GSC Potomac

Gianmaria AJANI

Professor of Comparative private law, UniTo

 

Roberto CARANTA

Professor of Administrative Law, UniTo

 

Luca CASTELLANI

Legal officer, UNCITRAL

 

Mario COMBA

Professor of Comparative public law, UniTo

 

Elena D’ALESSANDRO 

Full Professor of Civil Procedure, Univeristy of Turin

 

Mario FASANI

Activity Manager and Programme Officer, TSD, ITCILO

 

Silvia FERRERI

Full Professor of Comparative Private Law, University of Turin

 

Vincenzo FUCCI

Activity Manager and Programme Officer, TSD, ITCILO

 

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        

             

Andrea Piletta Massaro

Andrea received his degree in law summa cum laude, with academic distinction, from the University of Turin with a final dissertation titled 'Competition Defence, Private Enforcement Tools: Are They Effective?'.

Since then, he collaborated as trainee lawyer in the Global Transactions department of the international law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP's Milan office. He also worked as law clerk at the Turin Court of Appeal. He is admitted to the Italian bar.

Now he is a PhD candidate at the University of Trento, with a dissertation about the reforms needed in competition law vis-à-vis digitalisation, with a specific focus on the goals of antitrust rules. He also works as teaching assistant in both the Universities of Turin and Trento. In particular, he is involved in the Private Law, Comparative Law, EU Competition Law and EU Law courses.

He published articles in the fields of private comparative law and competition law, and he spoke at various conferences. His areas of interest are the impact of digitalisation and the green transition on competition law, private enforcement of competition law and collective redress.

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 is Professor of Comparative Private Law at the Law Department of the University of Turin, Italy and Visiting Professor at the Georgetown Law Center for Transnational Legal Studies in London. She is Fellow of the Transatlantic Technology Law Forum (Stanford Law School and Vienna School of Law). She teaches Comparative Law, Contracts, EU Competition Law, and Blockchain and the Law. Her most recent edited books include: Contracting and Contract Law in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (Hart, 2021, forthcoming, with M. Ebers and M. Zou) and The Cambridge Handbook of Smart Contracts, Blockchain Technology and Digital Platforms (Cambridge University Press, 2019, with L. Matteo and M. Cannarsa).

 

Cristina is a member of the International Association of Comparative Law and Delegate of the Law Department (sponsor institution) to the American Association of Comparative Law. She is also a member of ELI, Juris Diversitas and the Law & Society Association. She regularly acts as an expert for European institutions and international organizations and she is a coordinator of the Master in International Trade Law, co-organised with ITC-ILO, in cooperation with Unicitral and Unidroit. Cristina is a graduate of the University of Turin (MA) and Florence (PhD) and was an associate in an international law firm in the city of London and an intern in the Italian Competition Authority. In her career, she has been a Marie Curie IEF Fellow (Université Panthéon-Assas) and a Max Weber Fellow (EUI).

 

Arbitration and ADR: prof. Elena D’Alessandro

Elena D’Alessandro is full professor of European and Italian Civil Procedure at the University of Turin, Law Department. She obtained a Ph. D. in Civil Procedure at the University “La Sapienza” Rome (2004), a fellowship of the Alexander VonHumboldt Foundation (2009) and a fellowship of the German DAAD (2011-2012, 2013).

She has been visiting professor at the University of Bielefeld (2010) and Heidelberg (2011, DAAD Heidelberg Program zur Förderung internationales Gastwissenschaftlerinnen und Gastwissenschaftler) and visiting scholar at Queen Mary Law School, Columbia Law School, McGill School of Law, Max Planck Institute for Private International Law and Comparative Law and Max Planck Institute for International, European and Regulatory Procedural Law. In the Fall semester 2019 she has been co-director of the Center for Transnational Legal Studies (London).

She is currently coordinating the EU DG Justice Project named “LAWtrain (JUST-JTRA-EJTR-AG-2017). 

Her main research interests concern Transnational Litigation and European Civil Procedure.

 

Fees and application

The tuition fee is set at €9,400.

The fee includes:

  • programme development and management
  • teaching equipment, training materials and documentation
  • use of training facilities and support services

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 residential face-to-face part of the Master is €55 per night (minimum stay 30 nights)

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.

 

The application deadlines are as follows:

  • Deadline for the first round of applications: 29 March 2024.
  • Deadline for the second round of applications: 24 June 2024.
  • Deadline for the third round of applications: 20 September 2024.

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.

The payment schedule for the Masters’ Programme is as follows:

 

  1. a non-refundable enrollment fee of €1,500 to be invoiced at pre-enrolled status and payable prior to enrollment. The participant may not be enrolled and/or start the distance learning phase unless such payment is received in full;
  2. the remainder of the tuition fees to be invoiced after enrollment and payable at the latest one month prior to the start of the face-to-face learning phase;
  3. 100% of the accommodation fees payable 30 days prior to the start date of the face-to-face learning phase otherwise the room will be made available to other participants.

 

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).

 

If a full or partial balance is still outstanding by the last day of the Master, the Activity Manager will not provide the participant with the relevant university degree until full payment has been received.

 

Cancellation of participation in the Masters’ Programme will result in the following penalties:

  • Tuition fees:
    • €1,500, the non-refundable enrollment fee if cancellation at any time after enrollment, unless approved by the Treasurer and Director of TSD for compelling circumstances;
    • no refund of the remainder of the tuition fees if cancellation is made after the start date of the face-to-face learning phase.
  • Accommodation fees (B&B):
  • no penalty will be applied on accommodation fees if written notification of cancellation is made at least 14 days prior to the start date of the face-to face learning phase;
  • thereafter, a fixed penalty of €1,000 will apply on accommodation fees in addition to any accommodation costs already incurred. These will be calculated on a weekly basis (i.e. actual number of weeks and portions thereof);
  • in case of a change in the room type or occupancy option, a fixed penalty fee of €500 per person will apply.
FAQs

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:

  • motivation letter;
  • recent curriculum vitae;
  • diploma of university studies;
  • transcripts of university studies;
  • request for partial fellowship (if applicable)
  • certificates (TOEFL / IELTS) or other evidence of English language knowledge if not mother tongue.

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 23 September 2022Early 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. 

  • The Centre may agree to lodge accompanying persons on its campus subject to facility availability; priority is given to participants.
  • Children under the age of 18 can be admitted only if accompanied by an additional adult person who can take proper care of them during their stay.
  • No assistance in obtaining visas can be provided. 
  • Accompanying persons are responsible for their own illness and accident insurance covering the "main travel" (from/to their country of origin), their stay at the Centre, excursions and any study tours.
  • Only previously authorized visitors can access the campus. To both receive visits or have a guest for more days, it is necessary to request an authorization to the FIS Security Unit through the course secretary or manager at least one week in advance and upon the submission of a valid ID card of the visitor/guest. Otherwise students can meet visitors at the control room and without entering the campus.

According to ITCILO rules, accommodation is covered from the day before the beginning of the course  and to the day after the end of the course.

Any exception to the rule above should be approved by the Programme Manager.

No. During the 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 in our facilities 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: https://campuslife.itcilo.org/virtual-tour

Our partners
UNIDROIT Logo
International Institute for the Unification of Private Law

International Institute for the Unification of Private Law: UNIDROIT studies needs and methods for the modernization of private law, especially commercial law. It formulates legal instruments, principles, and rules for individual and groups of states in a variety of sectors. The uniform rules it produces usually take the form of international Conventions.

UNCITRAL logo
The United Nations Commission for International Trade Law

A core legal body of the United Nations system, UNCITRAL develops legal frameworks to harmonize and modernize international trade. It researches and promotes the adoption of legislative and non-legislative instruments in the field.

Istituto Universitario di Studi Europei logo
Istituto Universitario di Studi Europei

One of Turin’s leading institutions, the Institute organizes academic courses around European integration and international relations. It also conducts and publishes research papers, including work done by the European Union and its partners.

Unito
Università degli Studi di Torino

Since its inauguration in 1404, UNITO’s Department of Law has produced some of the leading jurists, statespeople, and scholars in European history. Among its distinguished faculty and alumni are writers, philosophers, and legal scholars.

Contacts

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 36 798

e-mail: tradelaw@itcilo.org

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