The aim:
1. Student acquires basic knowledge of the principles of private law.
2. Student learns concepts, legal institutions and basic concepts occurring in civil law and common law systems.
3. Student acquires knowledge of Polish civil and commercial law from a comparative law perspective.
4. Student is able to solve problems in the field of private and commercial law.

Acquired knowledge:
1. Student knows the basic principles of private law (civil and commercial) and its place in the legal system.
2. Student knows the structure and systematics of private law.
3. Student understands the differences between civil law and common law.
4. Student demonstrates knowledge in the field of concluding contracts, shaping contractual provisions and implementing contracts in selected legal systems, as well as basic knowledge in the field of prohibited contractual provisions and consumer protection in the Polish legal system and in other jurisdictions.
5. Student knows the principles and conditions of liability for damages in contract and tort in a comparative perspective, including the principles of liability for the obligations of legal persons as entities conducting business activity.
6. Student knows the types of legal entities and other forms of running a business.

Acquired skills:
1. Student is able to solve cases in the field of private law, applying appropriate legal provisions and case law.
2. Student is able to analyze and compare provisions of private law and formulate assessments as to their application and possible changes.
3. Student knows English legal terminology regarding the basic institutions of private and commercial law.
4. Student understands the issues of legal personality of legal persons and is able to draw practical conclusions in this regard.

Acquired social skills:
1. Student is able to present a solution to a legal problem using legal language.
2. Student is aware of the importance of the role of private and commercial law in social and economic life and the usefulness of knowledge about various legal orders in the field of private law.
3. Student is able to formulate statements in English about applicable legal solutions.

Course contents: 
1. Introduction to contract law: the concept of a contract and types of contracts, taxonomy, sources and scope of contract law, conditions for the validity of a contract.
2. Concluding contracts: offer and its acceptance, consensus, pre-contractual agreements.
3. Defectiveness of the agreement: fraud, error, abuse of circumstances, threat, contradiction of the agreement with the law and extra-legal custom or moral norms.
4. Interpretation of contracts and “searching” for contractual provisions (determining the legal consequences of the contract): objective interpretation, subjective interpretation and “supplementary interpretation”, contractual provisions requiring interpretation and provisions not requiring interpretation, preliminary agreements.
5. Contractual obligations: the nature of the debtor’s obligation, dispositive norms supplementing the agreement of the parties, types of obligations on the example of selected contracts.
6. Prohibited clauses: control of prohibited clauses, basic effects of the use of prohibited clauses.
7. Effects of breach of obligation: forced performance in nature, suspension of mutual performance, termination of the obligation relationship, liability for damages.
8. Extraordinary circumstances: impossibility of performance, hardship, imprevision, contractual provisions regulating the issue of extraordinary circumstances.
9. Contractual obligation and the legal situation of third parties: privity of contract and agency, contracts relating to third parties, assignment of receivables.
10. Introduction to consumer law: concept of consumer, models of consumer law in the EU, overview of unfair commercial practices, commercial and advertising practices, consumer contracts, basic clauses in consumer contracts, right of withdrawal, consumer sales contract, product liability.
11. Basics of tort law.
12. Tort and contractual liability for the acts of third parties (employees and other employees).
13. Legal entity: legal persons as entities conducting business activity and the so-called individual entrepreneurs.
14. Solving cases.

Recommended reading:
1. Contract Law in Poland, P. Machnikowski, J. Balcarczyk, M. Drela, Kluwer Law International. Alphen aan den Rijn 2020.
2. Contract Law: An Introduction to the English Law of Contract for the Civil Lawyer, J. Cartwright, Hart Publishing. Oxford–Portlad 2016.
3. Cases, Materials and Text on Contract Law, H. Beale, B. Fauvarque-Cosson, J. Rutgers, S. Vogenauer , Hart Publishing. Oxford–Portlad 2019.
4. Cases, Materials and Text on National, Supranational and International Tort Law, W. van Gerven, J. Lever, P. Larouche, Hart Publishing. Oxford–Portlad 2000.
5. European Product Liability: An Analysis of the State of the Art in the Era of New Technologies, ed. P. Machnikowski, Intersentia. Cambridge 2016.
6. Cases, Materials and Text on Consumer Law, eds. H.W. Micklitz, J. Stuyck, E. Terryn, Hart Publishing . Oxford–Portland 2010.
7. Cases, Materials and Text on National, Supranational and International Property Law, eds. S. van Erp, B. Akkermans, Hart Publishing. Oxford–Portlad 2012.
8. The Civil Code, E. Kucharska, weryfikacja językowa M. Le Mauviel, konsultacje prawne G.E. Domański, L. Stępniak, K. Dobkowska, A. Zbiegień-Turzańska, Wydawnictwo C.H. Beck. Warszawa 2019.