Diploma in International Contracts and Litigation

Start date:

02.06.2026

Duration: 120h

Modality: Online

Presentation

La Diploma in International Contracts and Litigation It aims to modernize and enrich the practice of international contracts and transnational judicial litigation in the region, bringing it in line with the latest international trends and practices.

Therefore, the topics to be addressed and the various activities to be carried out have been designed so that the participants achieve the following:

Analyze, negotiate and draft international contracts used in different industries;
Incorporate the knowledge and skills necessary to anticipate, address and, where appropriate, litigate in transnational cases;
Expand their intellectual tools to perform their careers in a global context.

Approved by resolution FD 27/19

Objectives

➤ Analyze, negotiate and draft international contracts used in different industries;

➤ Incorporate the knowledge and skills necessary to anticipate, address and, where appropriate, litigate in transnational cases;

➤ Expand their intellectual tools to perform their careers in a global environment.

Extra information

It is an eminently international program with a focus on comparative law, especially considering the legal systems of the various Latin American countries and the main jurisdictions worldwide.
The classes will be taught by leading national and international experts, and will combine theoretical and practical aspects, with special emphasis on the case method.
It can be taken for the purpose of obtaining the LLM degree with a focus on Arbitration, Litigation and International Contracts.

Agustina Alfaro	Paula María All	Francisco Amallo
Giuseppe Bianco	Alfredo Bullard	Leandro Caputo
Pablo Cornejo	Soledad Diaz	Diego P. Fernandez Arroyo
Franco Ferrari	Tomás Fiorito	Cecilia Fresnedo de Aguirre
Alejandro Garro	Sandra Gonzalez	Carolina D. Iud
Caroline Kleiner	José A. Martínez de Hoz	José Antonio Moreno Rodríguez
María Blanca Noodt Taquela	Jorge Oviedo Albaín	Milan Pejnovic
Gustavo Rivera	Julio César Rivera (H)	Luis Ernesto Rodríguez Carrera
Teresa Rodriguez de las Heras Ballell	Luciana Scotti	Juan Ignacio Stampalija
Daniel Trecca	Soledad Vallejos Meana	Eduardo Véscovi
Candela Villegas	Ignacio Zapiola	Alberto L. Zuppi

Delimitation of the subject matter of the Diploma. Typology of transnational commercial disputes. Prevention, prophylaxis, and management of transnational disputes. Role of private international law. Interaction with national public law and public international law.
Legal framework for transnational litigation. State legislation and main conventions ratified by Latin American countries. Problems of application and interpretation of treaties. Jurisdictional and applicable law issues. The notion of forum shopping.
The concept of international jurisdiction. Jurisdiction as power and as function. Conceptions of international jurisdiction in the tax systems of Romano-Germanic law and common law. The forum non conveniens. Reasons and arguments to justify the intervention of the courts.
Fundamental rights related to jurisdiction: access to justice, the right to a fair trial, and non-discrimination. The forum of necessity.
Types of jurisdictional forums. Exclusive and concurrent forums. Reasonable and exorbitant forums. General and special forums. State courts with specific jurisdiction in international commercial matters. Direct and indirect international jurisdiction. Adoption of urgent measures.
The choice-of-forum clause: form, interpretation, validity, effects, and limitations. Enforcement issues and possible means of enforcement: injunction, anti-suit injunction, costs, penalty clause, and damages. Unilateral and asymmetric clauses.
Other dispute resolution clauses. Tiered clauses. The arbitration agreement. Essential and incidental elements. The form of the arbitration agreement. The principle of autonomy of the arbitration clause. The extension of the arbitration agreement to non-signatory parties. International commercial mediation.
Applicable law. Rules of applicable law. Indirect, substantive, and internationally mandatory rules. Structure and functions of each. Exception or escape clause. General and contractual. Requirements for application. The status of non-state law. Lex mercatoria as applicable law.
Application of foreign law. Obligation. Proof. Legal usage theory. Information on foreign law. Limits and exceptions to the application of foreign law. International public policy and internationally peremptory norms. Application of non-state law.
Drafting Techniques Workshop. The Forum Choice Clause. The Applicable Law Choice Clause

General concepts. International due process.
Obligation of international judicial cooperation. Different levels. Applicable regulations. International jurisdiction of the judge requesting cooperation.
Notifications and other routine procedural acts. Request and obtaining of evidence.
Precautionary measures. Jurisdiction to adopt precautionary measures. Recognition and enforcement of precautionary measures ordered abroad.
Recognition and enforcement of judgments issued abroad. Formal and substantive requirements. Exequatur procedure. Regional and global instruments. The 2019 Hague Convention.
Effects of other types of decisions. Recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards. The New York (1958) and Panama (1975) Conventions. The Singapore Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation (2018).
Immunity from jurisdiction and immunity from execution of States. Sovereign acts and acts of commercial management. Exceptions to immunity. Waiver by a foreign State of immunity from jurisdiction.
Sovereign debt. Issuance and restructuring. Relationship with immunity. The cases of Argentina and Greece.

The contract from the perspective of common law and civil law.
Contract negotiations. Pre-contractual liability. Contract formation: Offer and acceptance. Positions and implications. Contract completion. Battle of forms.
Vices of consent. Grounds for annulment of contract. Illicit contracts.
Contractual interpretation and integration. The principle of good faith.
Contract performance. Means and currency of payment. Remedies for breach of contract.
Impossibility of performance (force majeure) and supervening excessive burden (unforeseen circumstances - “hardship”). Frustration of the purpose of the Contract.
Compensable damages in long-term contracts. Pecuniary damages. Loss of opportunity. Quantification and valuation.
Jurisdiction in matters of international contracts. The autonomy of the will as a guiding principle. Its scope and limitations. Determination of jurisdiction in the absence of a choice by the parties.
Applicable law to international contracts. Choice of state and non-state law. Mandatory rules and public policy principles in contract law. Determination of applicable law in the absence of a choice by the parties. Choice of applicable law in international commercial arbitration.

The influence of the internet and new technologies on international contracting. Main challenges. Smart contracts. Blockchain.
International Sale of Goods. The Vienna Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (1980). Its scope. Main obligations of the parties. Incoterms.
Payments and guarantees in international contracts. International finance.
Consumer contracts. Limitations on the principle of freedom of contract. Particularities in cross-border electronic commerce.
International contracts in the construction sector. Risk allocation. International standards/model contracts: FIDIC and NEC. Strategic contract communication. Dispute prevention methods under international standards. International construction contracts in Latin American practice.
Contracting with foreign states and state-owned enterprises. Particularities of the issue. Extension of jurisdiction. The state and arbitration. Issues of legitimacy.
Commercial companies. Nationality and registered office of companies. International jurisdiction and applicable law in corporate matters.
International mergers and acquisitions. International sales and purchases of companies and assets. Due diligence. Instruments for company acquisitions and transaction financing. Corporate restructurings. Cross-border mergers. Spin-offs. Global transfers of assets and liabilities.
Human rights and business. Influence of human rights law on international contracts.

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Diploma in International Contracts and Litigation

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Extra information