Магистратура
2024/2025
Правовое регулирование предпринимательства и стартапов: международный аспект
Лучший по критерию «Полезность курса для расширения кругозора и разностороннего развития»
Лучший по критерию «Новизна полученных знаний»
Статус:
Курс обязательный (Международный менеджмент / Master in International Management)
Направление:
38.04.02. Менеджмент
Кто читает:
Департамент правового регулирования бизнеса
Где читается:
Высшая школа бизнеса
Когда читается:
2-й курс, 2 модуль
Формат изучения:
без онлайн-курса
Охват аудитории:
для своего кампуса
Преподаватели:
Новикова Ольга Владимировна
Прогр. обучения:
Международный менеджмент
Язык:
английский
Кредиты:
3
Контактные часы:
24
Course Syllabus
Abstract
Academic course «Правовое регулирование бизнеса и стартапов: международный аспект» (“Legal Regulation of Business and Startup Companies: International Aspect”) is devoted to the legal architecture of startup companies from project launch to investment, scaling, protection of technology and exit readiness. The course focuses on a transactional approach: students learn to translate business needs into workable legal structures, documents and negotiation positions.
The course is based on contemporary startup practice and focuses on legal tools used across the startup lifecycle: choice of jurisdiction and legal form, founders’ arrangements, shareholders’ / corporate agreements, venture financing instruments, intellectual property ownership, confidentiality and preparation for investment due diligence or exit. Special attention is given to English legal terminology used in venture capital, M&A, joint ventures and startup documentation.
By the end of the course students will be able to explain how legal structuring supports a startup’s commercial objectives: limiting liability, allocating control and economics among founders and investors, protecting technology and confidential information, structuring investment terms and preparing a draft term sheet for a founders’ shareholders’ agreement.
The course provides for attendance, active participation in lectures and seminars, group project work and an optional final exam in the form of a test. The exam may be omitted under the rules in section 3.2. If the student elects not to take the exam, the maximum final grade available is 6 points on the 10-point scale. There are no blocking elements of current control.
The course requires a sufficient level of English to read legal sources, work with transactional documents, prepare short presentations and participate in class discussions. Additional background in civil law, corporate law, private international law and business law is welcome but not mandatory.
Learning Objectives
- Цель освоения (Learning objectives): The aim of the course is to provide students with a theoretical and practical understanding of startup legal structuring at the intersection of corporate, contract, intellectual property and finance law. The course prepares students to advise startup founders and investors on entity choice, jurisdictional strategy, allocation of ownership and control, investment documentation, IP transfer, confidentiality and preparation for due diligence. A special emphasis is placed on transactional thinking: identifying the commercial objective, selecting the relevant legal instrument, drafting and negotiating key terms, verifying sources and AI-assisted drafting, and defending the chosen structure in a team project.
Expected Learning Outcomes
- Students must gain knowledge on: ─ the main aspects of civil, business and tax law relating to company’s formation and operations;
- Students must gain knowledge on: ─ the key current problems in the field of contemporary law regulating startup companies; ─ national and international rules regulating startup formation and transactions; ─ main provisions, scope of application and content of the market standard legal documentation documenting startup companies’ transactions and the relevant legal concepts and vocabulary.
- Skills and abilities: ─ ability to use specific terms customary in the context of startup companies’ formation and operations; ─ understanding main legal concepts and areas of law applicable to startup companies’ formation and operations;
- Skills and abilities: ─ understanding the main legal documentation (contracts) documenting such formation and operations; ─ practical abilities to undertake a research and analysis of judgments, decisions and academic writings; ─ skills to analyze and solve cases, putting together a legal position and compose transactional documents documenting startup companies’ formation and operations.
- Students should gain the following competences: ─ ability to work with information (search, evaluate, use information, necessary for fulfilment of academic and professional tasks, from various sources, including application of the systematic approach);
- Students should gain the following competences: ─ ability to carry out professional activities in the international market environment; ─ ability to search, analyze and work with legally relevant information by using of juridical, comparative and other specific methods; ─ ability to describe legal problems and situations in the area of cross-border startup companies’ formation and operations.
- Students should gain the following competences: ability to search, evaluate and use information necessary for academic and professional tasks from legal, business and practical sources; ability to carry out professional activities in an international and technology-driven market environment; ability to analyse legal problems and documents using juridical, comparative and transactional methods;
- Students should gain the following competences: ability to describe and solve legal problems in cross-border startup formation, financing and operations; ability to work in teams and present a structured legal solution orally and in writing
- Students must gain knowledge on: explain the startup lifecycle and the main legal tools used at each stage, including NDAs, co-founder arrangements, IP assignments, term sheets, shareholders’ agreements and investment documents; distinguish legal forms and investment instruments, including sole proprietorships, partnerships, LLC / Ltd / Inc. structures, common equity, preferred equity, debt, convertible notes and SAFEs;
- Students must gain knowledge on: compare at least two legal forms or jurisdictions using liability, governance, transferability, financing, banking, registration and compliance criteria; core comparative jurisdictions are Delaware (US), DIFC (UAE) and Russia; calculate cap table, valuation, dilution and liquidation preference outcomes at an introductory level;
- Students must gain knowledge on: identify stakeholder interests and legal / commercial risks in startup cases, including governance, reserved matters, transfer restrictions, deadlock, IP ownership and confidentiality; draft and defend a team term sheet for a shareholders’ agreement at the stage when only founders are shareholders, using the template provided in class;
- Students must gain knowledge on: verify jurisdiction-specific information against official sources and verify AI-assisted drafting against the case, course materials, legal principles and reliable sources
Course Contents
- Topic № 2. Jurisdiction and legal form selection for startup companies.
- Topic № 3. Founder arrangements and shareholders’ / corporate agreements.
- Topic No. 4. Venture finance, cap tables and investment documents.
- Topic No. 5. Startup intellectual property, confidentiality, due diligence and exit readiness.
- Topic № 6. Basic agreements for start-up operations.
- Topic № 1. Startup cycle, entrepreneurial ecosystem and legal framework.
Assessment Elements
- Активность на семинарских занятиях (active participation in seminars)
- Тест (test)
- Устный экзамен (oral exam)
Interim Assessment
- 2024/2025 2nd moduleStudents may choose the following combinations of assessment elements for calculating the interim grade:
Bibliography
Recommended Core Bibliography
- 25046 - Предпринимательство и стартапы - (HBR) Коллектив авторов - Альпина Паблишер - 9785961473178 - 2023 - https://hse.alpinadigital.ru/book/25046 - Alpina
- Кузьмина, Е. Е. Организация предпринимательской деятельности : учебник для вузов / Е. Е. Кузьмина. — 5-е изд., перераб. и доп. — Москва : Издательство Юрайт, 2025. — 469 с. — (Высшее образование). — ISBN 978-5-534-16461-9. — Текст : электронный // Образовательная платформа Юрайт [сайт]. — URL: https://urait.ru/bcode/559862 (дата обращения: 14.01.2026).
- Минасян, Е. Т., Professional English and business communication : учебник / Е. Т. Минасян, М. А. Пономарев, В. О. Мидова. — Москва : Русайнс, 2025. — 98 с. — ISBN 978-5-466-10317-5. — URL: https://book.ru/book/959977 (дата обращения: 09.12.2025). — Текст : электронный.
- Спиридонова, Е. А. Создание стартапов : учебник для вузов / Е. А. Спиридонова. — 2-е изд. — Москва : Издательство Юрайт, 2025. — 187 с. — (Высшее образование). — ISBN 978-5-534-21303-4. — Текст : электронный // Образовательная платформа Юрайт [сайт]. — URL: https://urait.ru/bcode/569604 (дата обращения: 14.01.2026).
Recommended Additional Bibliography
- Carsten Gerner-Beuerle, & Michael Anderson Schillig. (2019). Comparative Company Law. Oxford: OUP Oxford. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=2227470
- Ларионов И.К., Ехлакова Е.А., Ларионова И.И. - Предпринимательство. Корпоративный и теневой ракурсы - 978-5-394-04624-7 - Дашков и К - 2022 - https://znanium.ru/catalog/product/2083920 - 2083920 - ZNANIUM
- Стартапы и инновации: дайджест [Текст] / — (Новое в менеджменте) - 978-5-75984070-1 - Иванющенкова М. В., Катькало В. С., Петрова Ю. Е., и др. - 2024 - Москва: ВШЭ - https://ibooks.ru/products/396140 - 396140 - iBOOKS