02.D Legal Systems of the World – Cases
Case
Alpine MedTech AG, Luzern, produces diagnostic devices for hospitals. Next year it plans to sell them through local distributors in Germany, in Texas (USA) and in Malaysia. The CEO, a business graduate, wants a one-page briefing on the legal system of each country before she meets the company’s lawyer.
Task
Work in groups, one country per group, with a chatbot of your choice (Claude, ChatGPT & Co.). Validate every answer against an official source (JuriGlobe index, the constitution of the country, EUR-Lex, the website of the state legislature). Answer the following questions for your country:
- Legal system: Which legal system does the country belong to? What does that mean for finding the law and for the length of contracts?
- Who makes the law: Is contract law made by the national parliament or by the individual states of the country?
- Courts: Which court would decide a dispute with the distributor, and would a jury be involved?
- Constitution: Can a court strike down a statute as unconstitutional?
- Germany only: Which of the relevant rules come from the EU (regulation or directive?) and which from Germany itself?
- Briefing: Prepare the one-page briefing: the three points the CEO must know about the legal system of your country, and one question she should ask the lawyer.
In class: each group presents its briefing in three minutes; we compare the three countries and add the countries of the students in the class. There is no model answer on intla.ch.