While the globalization of private capital markets has led to significant welfare gains, it has also been responsible for episodes of financial instability, often with devastating consequences. The course analyses the underlying causes of international financial crises and assesses policymakers` efforts to mitigate their effects. The course will be interdisciplinary and will focus on the legal, financial and economic dimensions of these crises and relevant policy responses. Key lessons are drawn from an in-depth analysis of major episodes, including the Latin American debt crisis, the Asian financial crisis, Argentina`s default in 2001, and the crises triggered by the Great Recession of 2008, including the eurozone crisis. We will also perform a simulation where students will play the roles of different policy makers who are trying to contain and ultimately solve the crisis. Examines the legal and financial aspects of foreign investment projects, particularly in developing countries, from the perspective of the investor, the lender and the host country. Legal issues related to structuring foreign investment, designing private and public financing, and constructing a project are taken into account. Considerable time is devoted to the analysis of standard documentation for financing international projects, but international and local legal issues relating to foreign investment, support from national and multinational organizations, non-commercial risk analysis and dispute resolution are reviewed and discussed. An introductory course in investigation that examines transactional and litigation disputes encountered by international companies.
The aim of this course is to familiarize students with the wide range of topics relating to international trade before students choose other courses for further specialization, and to introduce students to the analytical tools used by lawyers advising on international trade issues. Topics include the international sale of goods (including letters of credit), international contractual matters, cross-border financing (including letters of credit and bank financing) and international investments. Litigation topics relate to the settlement issues addressed and include a particular focus on contractual rights and remedies, choice of law, choice of jurisdiction and international arbitration. This seminar will examine sovereign debt and its role in national and global financial systems. By the end of 2012, national governments had borrowed more than $40 trillion from private creditors at home and abroad, and hundreds of billions more from each other and international organizations. Government bonds are a popular savings tool, a benchmark for assessing the risk of corporate debt and basic wealth in national and global financial systems. Sovereign governments can also guarantee the borrowing of other major economic players, from cities and provinces, to banks and real estate lenders. In many ways, sovereign debt works like money. However, it is also de facto unenforceable, as most debtors` assets are either immune or inaccessible to creditors. In addition to the basic political, doctrinal, and theoretical concepts of borrowing and government restructuring, we will examine recent crises in Europe and Latin America, reform proposals, and implications for the financial system. This three-credit course is an introduction to the legal issues that arise in international business transactions.
Topics covered include: 1) laws and treaties relating to cross-border commercial transactions; (2) core international business transactions, including international sales and letters of credit, off-premises (agency, distribution, contract manufacturing, franchising, licensing) and incorporation (branch, subsidiary, joint venture) business transactions, equity and project/debt finance transactions, and mergers and acquisitions; (3) basic legal concepts such as choice of law, jurisdiction, place of jurisdiction, investment protection (expropriation), anti-corruption and competition regulation, and dispute settlement with a focus on litigation and arbitration, (4) transfer and protection of intellectual property, and (5) corporate social responsibility. Recommended: Knowledge of financial regulation and/or international law would be useful, but not essential. Anti-corruption law. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits bribery of foreign government officials, has spawned a number of international conventions and similar laws in some 140 countries. Worrying for multinationals, the anti-corruption law has led to dramatic spikes in law enforcement and hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties against companies and individuals. Trade policy. This category generally includes all tensions between countries in international trade and investment that are not directly covered by other laws. Access to foreign markets, violations of WTO rules, trade barriers, and special trade preferences are addressed by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative or on Capitol Hill, with a touch of politics and policy as well as law. Taking into account the above considerations, it identifies the main elements of an effective anti-corruption strategy and stresses the importance of a comprehensive approach that includes not only effective criminalisation and prosecution, but also comprehensive regulatory and administrative reform. Although legal obligations and good practices have been established at the international level, which include many of these components, there is evidence that meaningful change only occurs when national conditions are met for reforms, which are often triggered by a crisis. In this context, the course will include case studies on reforms, based, inter alia, on the IMF`s experience and focusing on Indonesia`s anti-corruption agenda.
It is important to note that the course will also assess international efforts to combat both the supply of corruption (the granting of bribes to officials by large corporations) and the problem of “obfuscation” (when banks in large jurisdictions help launder the proceeds of bribery of foreign officials). These issues are addressed in an in-depth review of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention and the 40 recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force on Anti-Money Laundering and Financing. Corruption within the political system is also studied, including explicit corruption of politicians, conflicts of interest, and private financing of political campaigns (sometimes referred to as “legalized corruption”). Finally, the course will assess the merits of proposals to establish an international tribunal against corruption. Various laws and international agreements govern the organization of the company, the terms of the contract, the financing and protection of investments in transactions between private parties across international borders. The issue of investor-State disputes and their settlement is at the forefront of international law and is an essential factor for the development of the global economic system in the years to come. The study of this form of arbitration provides an overview of the evolution of the form of customary international law, the conflict between capital-importing and exporting States, and the status of individuals in the international legal order. This seminar provides students with a solid foundation in the history, current practice and future implications of arbitration between foreign investors and host states, sanctioned by multilateral and bilateral investment treaties.