Course Catalogue

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This course examines the role played by international law in the contemporary global economic system through a consideration of the various ways in which international lawyers and specialists from neighbouring disciplines engage with and respond to what are considered to be the main pressing problems confronting the global economic arena (trade wars, underdevelopment, sovereign debt crises, etc.). More specifically, students will be introduced to core debates and perspectives about the role of law in regulating debt, trade, monetary sovereignty, and investment, and how these subjects, in turn, are addressed and organised in contemporary international law, what institutional frameworks exist in each of these areas (WTO, IMF, the World Bank, investment arbitration, etc.), and what their main relative strengths and weaknesses are according to different theoretical and political traditions. In addition to advancing their doctrinal knowledge of these subjects, it will also introduce the students to the main paradigms of international theory and the basic critical and analytical skills needed to make use of them.

The course will be delivered by way of ten two-hour-seminars. Each seminar will be taught synchronously and in-person (face to face).

Admission to the course is subject to the general School of Law policy. Each candidate will have to obtain a pass in Public International Law (Ordinary) or another comparable course if any part of their previous studies was completed elsewhere (e.g. during an international exchange year) and also in the case of visiting students.

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There will be one, end-of-course written examination. It will be worth 100% of the final mark. It will be in an 'open book'-style format (students will be allowed to consult any materials covered in the course), and it will be set for two hours.

The principal aim of this course is to foster critical thinking about the place of international law in the global economy. In particular, the course aims:

• to enhance the students' knowledge and understanding of the constitutive power and problem-solving capacity of international law and its place in different areas of the contemporary global economy;

• to develop the students' skills of legal reasoning, problem-solving, legal writing, and critical analysis;

• to encourage in-depth and independent learning in areas relating to this course's subject matter (international law and the global economy);

• to develop the students' research skills and argument-construction skills;

• to develop the students' team work skills and provide them with the experience of working in groups. 

By the end of this course students will:

1. be able to demonstrate a critically informed understanding of the role played by different international law regimes, such as international trade and investment, in the contemporary global economic order;

2. be able to demonstrate a critically informed understanding of the role played by different international law institutions, such as the World Trade Organisation, in the contemporary global economic order;

3. be able to assess critically the role of international law in international economic affairs;

4. be able to orient themselves in the main debates that have developed within international law concerning the above subjects;

5. be able to demonstrate a critically informed understanding of the relationship that international law as a discipline has with other disciplines, such as international relations and economics;

6. be better able to construct and present oral or written legal arguments