LLM in Commercial Law and International Trade

World Trade Law

This module examines the key aspects of the public international law of trade and finance. International trade, in its public sense, comprises the multilateral regulation of trade through the World Trade Organisation and free trade agreements that have been concluded outside the WTO framework. These agreements between governments limit and determine their powers to restrict the flow of goods and services between countries. The majority of the module focuses on the fundamental principles of international trade contained in GATT 1994 under the WTO Agreement. In addition, it examines international financial institutions such as the IMF and World Bank that have a role in the regulation and dispensation of financial goods, including currency movements and major project funding. This module is intended to outline the key international regimes at work in the contemporary trade and financial worlds, and allow you to explore and understand the reach of these institutions in international law.

Law of International Business Transactions

This module provides an introduction to the relevant components of business transactions within a global economy. It focuses on the 'micro' perspective of the private business actor. It introduces the basic transactions for the purchase and sale of goods, an analysis of various types of contracts, and remedies available for the breach thereof. Discussion focuses on special problems arising between buyer and seller where goods are carried in a container, and the various types of contracts for the carriage of goods by sea. It looks at banker's commercial credits and examines contractual effects between the buyer and seller; buyer and banker; and the seller and banker. The module proceeds to more complicated distribution and licensing agreements, joint venture and foreign direct investment agreements, and considers dispute resolutions in international business transactions. This course prepares for 'Advanced Issues of International Business Transactions'.

Advanced Legal Research Methods

This module introduces you to legal research methods in preparation for your dissertation.

Advanced Issues of International Business Transactions

This module is for those who are already acquainted with the law on International Business Transactions, providing the opportunity to go into depth on selected problems. It is designed to allow intense discussions of these problems in order to raise the sensitivity for the issues at stake and to lead to a research oriented approach. The module will focus on a selection of topical contemporary issues of international business transactions, such as international e-commerce, UN Sales Convention (CISG), UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts, charter parties, multimodal transport, marine insurance, agency agreements, international franchising, FDI and corruption. It seeks to be as topical as possible, so that content may change in the light of developments.

International Economic Law

This module examines the history, theories and application of the concepts of development and globalisation under international law. In particular, it focuses on the key aspects of economic activity and environmental protection currently regulated under the auspices of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the World Bank and other international and regional institutions. These systems are subjected to critical assessment and the positive and negative effects of the global project of development are questioned. The module also devotes time to contemporary topics relating to the right to development, food security, post-conflict and transitional countries, natural resource law, foreign direct investment and protests against development projects and programmes.

Corporate Governance

International Investment Law

This module examines the laws, policies and legal issues affecting foreign investment and foreign enterprises, with special emphasis on the developing world and emerging markets. The reasons why investors invest abroad and why host countries permit and often actively encourage foreign investment are explored. The role that law plays in the investment process at both global and local levels is critically examined, including the rules, principles and institutions of public international law that affect direct foreign investment, host country laws that reward and regulate foreign investment, and the law of investment contracts. The module also examines core legal principles concerning investment operation, such as standards of treatment, expropriation and compensation. Finally, it will examine the dispute settlement regime of international investment.

International Commercial Arbitration

This module introduces you to international commercial law and arbitration, including arbitral agreements, applicable law, the enforcement of arbitral awards and arbitrations involving state parties. It also addresses the international regulation of conducts of foreign investment and critically examines the role international commercial law and arbitration plays in the process of economic globalization.

Banking and Financial Law

This module provides a comprehensive overview and introduction to the banking business and its nexus with financial instruments and markets. It situates the modern wholesale and retail financial services sector and the business organisations supplying these services in their historical trajectory, from the earliest development of fractional reserve banking in European nation- states into the nineteenth and twentieth century; with particular attention to the US, UK, Germany and Japan. The core purposes of financial intermediation will be examined: lending (for corporate finance, project and trade financing), the relationship between banks and other forms of corporate finance, the quasi-public utility of the payments system, and the UK and EU standards governing provision of retail/consumer financial services.