The urgent transformation of the discipline of commercial law during covid-19 lockdown

Abstract

We present a reflection on the university experience in relation to online teaching of the subject of Business Law during the general lockdown of the Spanish population in the context of the state of emergency decreed by the Spanish government due to the health crisis caused by Covid-19. Specifically, this paper focuses on detailing the circumstances of the urgent transformation that the subject of commercial law underwent when the pandemic broke out in Spain last March 2020, coinciding with the second semester of the 2019/2020 academic year. The University was quick to react to the state of emergency caused by Covid-19, accepting the new reality of working online and reacting immediately. It provided teachers with the necessary technological tools to meet these new online needs, which enabled them to take on the new teaching challenges that were arising along with the urgent transformation of educational needs in the university environment. The rapid adaptation of syllabuses to help them adjust to the new reality posed by the educational system was only a prelude to a new stage of crisis that teaching staff and students would be faced with throughout the three months of lockdown, accompanied by great uncertainty. The efficient use of new technological resources was the mechanism that made it possible to adapt to a new and urgent virtual scenario that required the implementation of new academic practices in university education in the face of the unprecedented situation of a global health crisis.