Required Courses

All students are required to take the below three courses, which are worth a total of 4 credits.

Students who attend the program in both the Fall and the Spring semester may only take the Global Practice Exercise in their first semester at CTLS. They must also take the Transnational Law Colloquium and Lectures in Transnational Justice during their first semester, but may choose in which semester to take the Core Course.

Global Practice Exercise
CTLS Faculty

Each semester will begin with an intensive, multi-day exercise in transnational and/or comparative law. The exercise will provide an opportunity for the diverse students and faculty at CTLS to work together on a common legal problem. All faculty and students will participate in the exercise. The objectives are to give students and faculty a quick start working together on a real legal practice problem, which will highlight the importance and challenges of communicating across transnational legal and cultural boundaries; draw CTLS participants into active roles in their own learning and academic exchange; and introduce students to the process of tackling real-world legal problems that transcend national boundaries, learning both transnational variations in substantive law and legal processes.

1 Credit, required. Evaluation: Participation in the plenary sessions and breakout groups.

Transnational Law Colloquium and Lectures in Transnational Justice
Coordinated by Jennifer Hillman, Georgetown Law and Ernest Lim, National University of Singapore (Fall 2025 Only)

The Transnational Law Colloquium will meet weekly for presentations by leading academics and practitioners on topics of current international, transnational or comparative law interest. Each meeting will involve the presentation of a paper, brief comments, and a discussion with the author/presenter among all participants. Attendees will be the Center’s students, faculty and invited guests. Students, who will be divided up and each assigned to attend a sub-set of the colloquia, will write short responses to two of the papers in advance of the meeting.

The Lectures in Transnational Justice are similar to the Colloquia; however, they are more formal, have a higher profile, and are aimed at the wider CTLS community within London. There will be two lectures each semester delivered by scholars or practitioners with significant transnational experience. Students must attend both lectures.

1 Credit, required. Evaluation: Participation in five assigned colloquia and submission of two response papers (500 words each), Participation at two lectures.

Transnational Law Colloquium and Lectures in Transnational Justice
Coordinated by Jennifer Hillman, Georgetown Law and Christian Hofmann, National University of Singapore (Spring 2026 Only)

The Transnational Law Colloquium will meet weekly for presentations by leading academics and practitioners on topics of current international, transnational or comparative law interest. Each meeting will involve the presentation of a paper, brief comments, and a discussion with the author/presenter among all participants. Attendees will be the Center’s students, faculty and invited guests. Students, who will be divided up and each assigned to attend a sub-set of the colloquia, will write short responses to two of the papers in advance of the meeting.

The Lectures in Transnational Justice are similar to the Colloquia; however, they are more formal, have a higher profile, and are aimed at the wider CTLS community within London. There will be two lectures each semester delivered by scholars or practitioners with significant transnational experience. Students must attend both lectures.

1 Credit, required. Evaluation: Participation in seven assigned colloquia and submission of two response papers (500 words each), Participation at two lectures.

Core Course: Transnational Law: Introduction and Selected Issues
Yuval Shany, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Fall 2025 Only)

This course seeks to introduce students to the various forms of law that comprise “transnational law.” Philip Jessup, who coined the term, defined such law as “all law which regulates actions or events that transcend national frontiers… [including] [b]oth public and private international law… [and] other rules which do not wholly fit into such standard categories.” These “other rules” might be rules of private international law, which seek to regulate persons or transaction situated or occurring, at least in part, beyond the state’s physical borders. Today, the category of “other rules” that Jessup sought to highlight has grown considerably and include some non-state-based regimes such as, investment protection schemes and social media community standards, international regimes closely associated with domestic law, such as international human rights law and international criminal law, and comparative law. Through a series of case studies and exercises, the course aims to familiarize students with the principal forms of transnational law and the relations among them.

2 Credits, required. Evaluation:

  • Two essays (50% each): There will be two assigned essays over the course of the semester. The word limit for each essay is 1750 words.
  • Class participation: Students who actively participate in class discussion in a manner that demonstrate deep familiarity with the assigned reading materials and class materials, may receive a grade adjustment bonus of up to 0.5 points.

Core Course: Transnational Law: Introduction and Selected Issues
Harold Hongju Koh, Yale Law School (Spring 2026 Only)

This course will introduce students to the various forms of law that comprise “transnational law,” definded by Philip Jessup as “all law which regulates actions or events that transcend national frontiers… [including] [b]oth public and private international law… [and] other rules which do not wholly fit into such standard categories.” The course will familiarize students with the principal forms of transnational law and the relations among them. The course will first introduce students to the trans-substantive “transnational legal process,” by which domestic legal rules are uploaded into international law and vice versa, or transplanted from one legal system to another. The course will then investigate Jessup’s “other rules” which include rules of “transnational legal substance,” that regulate persons or transactions situated or occurring outside the state’s physical borders. Today, transnational legal substance has grown considerably and include international human rights and humanitarian law, international criminal law; law of the sea, environment and climate change; and global public health.

2 Credits, required. Evaluation:

  • Final Take-Home Examination: There will be an 8-hour, open book, final take-home examination to be taken during the final examination period. The word limit will be 2,500 words.
  • Group presentation and powerpoint: Each student will participate in an oral presentation on a topic in transnational law and policy in March 2026, with an accompanying powerpoint.
  • Class participation: Students who actively participate in class discussion in a manner that demonstrates deep familiarity with the assigned reading materials and class materials, may receive a grade adjustment bonus of up to 0.5 points.

Fall 2025 – Elective Courses

Please see the Fall 2025 Class Schedule for weekly class timings.

Comparative Corporate Law
Ernest Lim, National University of Singapore

The course consists of a comparative study of the major areas of corporate law in the Anglo-American, selected EU, and common law Asian jurisdictions. We will examine a series of key problems with which any system of corporate law must deal and we will analyse the solutions that have been adopted by these systems from a theoretical, doctrinal and empirical perspective. This comparative study aims to equip students to critically evaluate the corporate law system in their own jurisdictions. Students will be exposed to the key debates and cutting-edge literature. A basic understanding of corporate law is presupposed.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Class participation (25%), Class presentation (35%), Final take-home exam (8 hours) (40%).

Constitutionalism and Democracy
Alon Harel, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

This course examines the legitimacy of constitutionalism. We will examine the legitimacy of constitutions and in particular their interaction with majoritarian and/or democratic sentiments. We will start with the counter-majoritarian difficulty and later investigate ways to overcome it.

Among the questions we ask: can the protection of rights justify limits on the powers of the majority and if so when? Can procedural values such as the protection of majoritarianism justify constitutionalism. In addition to the normative questions, we will also examine different constitutional mechanisms in different countries such as strong and weak judicial review, common law decisions that entrench constitutional statutes, etc.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Class participation and presentation of students’ own legal system (20%), Final paper (4000 words) (80%).

ONE-PLUS OPTION:

For 1 extra credit, a limited number of students who need to fulfill a graduation requirement at their home university may write a major research paper. To obtain the extra credit, the student must (a) turn in a written outline of the paper for faculty comment relatively early in the semester, (b) turn in a complete first draft for faculty comment two-thirds of the way through the semester, and (c) write a paper of 6000 words, not including footnotes.

Please note that this course has been approved as a WR course for Georgetown students.

Do We Still Need International Treaties? A Course on Treaty Law
Andrea Spagnolo, University of Torino

In 2016, Sir Frank Berman delivered the inaugural lecture of the Hague Academy of International Law by asking “Why do we need a law of treaties?”

Ten years later, such a question has become crucial, at least from two perspectives.

First, States have made extensive use of informal and secret agreements to regulate particularly sensitive areas of bilateral cooperation: from the economic-financial to the military or the management of migration flows. Second, States still use international treaties to sign peace agreements, to terminate or suspend armed conflicts.

Are informal and secret agreements valid under international law? What characteristics must international agreements possess to be valid and stable? How do peace agreements are negotiated between State and non-State actors? Are they admissible during an armed aggression?

Such questions demonstrate the importance of international treaty law as a factor of stability and certainty in international legal relations. The course intends to propose a study of international law of treaties in the light of the most recent trends, in particular under the two perspectives mentioned above, through the analysis of international practice, both historical and current, and by the critical analysis of the provisions of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969.

The course is suggested to students particularly interested in international law and international relations.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Attendance and class participation, including one class presentation (30%), Final take-home exam (8 hours) (70%).

Insurance Law
Özlem Gürses, King’s College London

Some define insurance as a strange product that is not purchased and consumed like a commodity. It is usually out of sight, out of mind, and is remembered only when a risk occurs and the insured suffers a financial loss. It only finds its space in the news headlines when the insurer refuses to pay for the assured’s loss. This usually leads to the perception that insurers collect the premium, but when the insured makes a claim, they do not pay.

This course does not take either the insurer’s or the assured’s side but looks into insurance contracts from an objective, informed person’s point of view. An insurance relationship is contractual and governed by insurance principles, some of which can be classified as ‘too technical.’ Only an insurance specialist can fully comprehend some particular clauses’ role in the insurance contract.  

In this course, we will be reading a number of court cases discussing whether the insurers were liable for the insured, unlike what the insurer had argued in response to the claim. The principles of insurance law are derived from such court cases. In each case, the story will be different; hence, you will learn the diverse types of insurance coverage, how disputes arise, and how courts approach and resolve the matters. By the end of the course, our aim is for you to be able to read and interpret an insurance contract expertly.

Optional textbook: Ozlem Gurses, Marine Insurance Law, 3rd ed.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Class participation (40%), Final take-home exam (8 hours) (60%).

International Trade, Investment, Finance and Development and the Institutions Behind Them
Jennifer Hillman, Georgetown Law

This course provides an introduction to the international legal and institutional frameworks that govern economic cooperation among nation states in key areas, including international trade, finance, investment and development. Considerable emphasis will be placed on the institutional dimension of cooperation, with a comparative review of the relevant international organizations (including the WTO, IMF, World Bank and OECD).  The Course will identify the current challenges faced by each of these institutions in an environment where multilateral co-operation, although increasingly urgent, is also increasingly unpopular. The Course will conclude with a focus on cross-cutting issue, including the backlash to globalization and efforts to “decouple” or restrict the flow of capital, goods or technology to certain markets, or to reconfigure global supply chains; the efficacy of “soft law” and “soft institutions,” which are increasingly relied upon in an environment where countries are less inclined to surrender legal sovereignty through the creation of treaty obligations; the impact of economic crime and corruption on economic development and financial stability; and the rise of national security concerns in the international economic law and policy spheres.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Attendance and class participation (10%), Class presentation (20%), Final paper (70%).

Navigating Cross-Border Disputes: Jurisdiction, Enforcement, and Strategic Choices
Saloni Khanderia, Jindal Global Law School

As global interconnectedness grows, so too do the frequency and complexity of cross-border disputes. Determining where to bring a claim, how to assess liability, and whether arbitration clauses displace court jurisdiction are pressing challenges. Further complications arise when disputes involve State-owned enterprises in non-market economies like China, raising questions about sovereign immunity and its limits. These issues highlight the urgent need for clear, predictable solutions to support transnational trade and effective dispute resolution.

Approaches to resolving cross-border civil and commercial disputes differ widely between common law and civil law traditions. Civil law jurisdictions such as Japan and South Korea follow the European model, harmonized through instruments like the Brussels I Recast, Rome I, and Rome II Regulations. Common law systems, on the other hand, rely heavily on English precedents, shaped before and after the UK’s EU membership. This divergence has created distinct schools of thought with significant impact on litigation outcomes.

In response to investor concerns and the complexities of transnational litigation, especially regarding enforceability, sovereign immunity, and forum multiplicity, many jurisdictions (e.g., China, Dubai, UK, France, Cyprus and, more recently, Germany) have established commercial courts with tailored procedures for high-value international disputes. While litigation is often less favored than arbitration, these specialized courts seek to streamline processes and build confidence in judicial resolution of international commercial claims.

Set against this evolving backdrop, this course, Navigating Cross-Border Disputes: Jurisdiction, Enforcement, and Strategic Choices offers students a comparative, practice-oriented foundation in private international law. Key topics include court jurisdiction, applicable law, and the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. The course aims to prepare students to strategically select between arbitration and litigation, informed by a nuanced understanding of different legal systems.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Class participation (15%), Written Submission to a Moot Problem (35%), Final take-home exam (8 hours) (50%).

Populism and Law
Alon Harel, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Populism as an ideology and practice relies on ‘the will of the people.’ It has become a constant feature of the legal and political landscape: all around the world, populist governments not only endorse populist policies but also transform the constitutional framework of their countries. In this course, we will examine legal populism in time – that is to say, the emergence and decline of populist regimes, the way they establish themselves in power, and also their demise and the long-term consequences on the legal and constitutional sphere. In particular, we focus on the relationship between populism and the legal foundations of the state. Since populist movements have significantly influenced politics over the last decades, there is by now a wealth of evidence concerning the ways populism operates, the circumstances in which it develops, the techniques it utilizes to entrench itself in power, and the legacy it leaves behind once it disappears.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Class Participation and Reflection Papers (20%), Final Paper (4000 words) (80%).

The Institutions and Domestic Laws of the European Union
Giovanni Gruni, ESADE Law School

The European Union (EU) is a family of liberal democratic countries, acting collectively through an institutionalized system of decision-making. The EU was set up as a consequence of the negative experiences of the founding member states during and in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. The objective of peace went hand in hand with a desire to ensure that Europe was able to get back on its feet economically after 1945. Although the EU has changed dramatically since the early days of the Community, growth and employment remain at the top of the EU’s agenda. This course will review in depth the origins, evolution and current challenges of the European integration project. The course will focus specifically on the institutional laws of the EU, its core legal concepts and principles as well as the rules on the EU internal market and other core areas of domestic EU laws.

Required textbook: Karen Davies, Maarten van Munster and Isabel Düsterhöft, Understanding European Union Law (8th ed., 2023).

2 Credits. Evaluation: Mid-term presentation and class participation (30%), Group research essay written during the last month of the course and presented during the last class (5000 words) (40%), Final take-home exam (1500 words) (8 hours) (30%).

The Law of International Institutions in Times of Crisis
Andrea Spagnolo, University of Torino

The idea for this course stems from a research question: do States still consider the method of multilateralism as an effective tool for regulating their international affairs?

To answer this question, it is necessary to study the foundations of the law of international organizations, both in the general and in the specific part.

The course therefore intends to offer the possibility of carrying out this study through the critical analysis of the main principles of international law applicable to international organizations and an analysis of the prospects for reform of the most important international institution, the United Nations, in particular of the Security Council.

The course is suggested to students particularly interested in international law and international relations.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Attendance and class participation, including one class presentation (30%), Final take-home exam (8 hours) (70%).

Topics in Transnational Legal Theory
Catherine Valcke, University of Toronto

The present, globalized world offers great challenges for classic legal thought. Increased awareness and understanding of legal plurality – in terms of rules, forms of reasoning, legal cultures and central actors – indeed poses challenges to both the possibility and desirability of endeavouring to explain all world law through a single model. This course explores a number of topics frequently encountered by transnational legal actors – legal harmonization, legal transplants and imperialism, legal formants and sociological jurisprudence, legal philosophy and comparative jurisprudence, indigenous and religious legal orderings, ‘soft’ or non-state governance, the role of AI in transnational encounters, transnational legal education, etc. – with a view to honing our grasp of transnational governance and giving shape to something that might deserve to be described as “transnational legal thought”. Particular attention will be placed on the discipline and methods of comparative law that have traditionally been deployed to tackle such issues as the epistemological hurdles involved in understanding foreign law and actors, the value of the concept of ‘legal systems’ and their delineation, the object of comparative law and transnational legal theory, and the role and ethos of transnational legal actors (whether citizens, lawyers or officials). The course will be based on a close reading and collective discussion of a limited number of texts pertaining to these various issues; it will not be a survey course. In addition to student presentations (see ‘Evaluation’ below), some outside speakers will be invited to present to the class on topics falling in their field of expertise.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Class participation (30%), Post-Class Questions (20%), Final take-home exam (8 hours) (50%).

Transnational Contract Law
Saloni Khanderia, Jindal Global Law School and Catherine Valcke, University of Toronto

In an increasingly interconnected world, contracts rarely stay within borders. Whether it’s a global partnership or a one-time international deal, today’s contracts often involve parties from different countries, operating under different legal systems. But what happens when something goes wrong? Which court gets to decide the dispute? Which country’s law applies? And how can you be sure a judgment or arbitration award will actually be enforced? This course tackles those questions head-on by combining comparative contract law and private international law to give you the tools to navigate international commercial relationships with confidence.

Part I of the course dives into the fundamentals of contract law in different legal traditions, focusing on English common law and French civil law. These two systems represent opposite ends of the legal spectrum, with one rooted in precedent and pragmatism, the other in codification and principle. Understanding how they differ (and overlap) will give you a strong foundation for working with contracts across legal borders.

But comparing legal systems is only the beginning. Part II shifts focus to private international law, the set of rules that help courts decide which law applies, where cases should be heard, and how decisions can be enforced internationally. This part explores how deep differences in contract law can lead to very different outcomes in the same dispute, depending on where and how it’s litigated. Specifically, it explores the different traditions that have shaped modern conflict-of-law rules, and how efforts to harmonise them through treaties, model laws, and international conventions are building bridges between divergent systems while still respecting national sovereignty and cultural differences.

This 3-credit course on Transnational Contract Law is ideal for students interested in international commercial law, arbitration, or cross-border litigation. It offers a rigorous, practice-oriented foundation for those seeking to engage with the legal complexities of today’s global marketplace.

3 Credits. Evaluation: Class participation (20%), Class Presentation (30%), Final take-home exam (8 hours) (50%).

World Trade Law
Giovanni Gruni, ESADE Law School

World trade law is the body of international laws underpinning international economic exchanges between States. From an embryonic system of rules created after World War II to deal mainly with customs duties on goods, world trade law blossomed into an extensive apparatus of norms including not only free movement of goods and services but also intellectual property rights, food safety, public intervention into the economy and many other areas of regulation. Notably, world trade law is endowed with an exceptionally efficient dispute settlement mechanism, the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization (WTO), which distinguishes itself for its automatic jurisdiction on all matters related to WTO covered agreements. The WTO itself is a complex international organisation created in 1995 which is playing a pivotal role in shaping the rules and policies governing globalisation. In addition to the WTO a complex web of free trade agreements (FTAs) creates one of most developed bodies of norms known to public international law.

This course is an introduction to world trade law in all its substantive, procedural and institutional elements. The course starts with an overview of the history of world trade law since the end of World War II to the creation of the WTO and the emergence of FTAs. The course then delves into the details of WTO institutional design and of selected areas of WTO law and practice: the GATT and free movement of goods, the GATS and free movement of services, Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). The courses then focuses on new challenges to world trade law created by the need to protect the environment and social rights, its institutional crisis and the utilization of FTAs as regulatory alternative to the WTO. The last part of the course will explain how the European Union and United States influence the development of world trade law via their international trade policy.

Required textbook: Peter Van den Bossche and Denise Prévost, Essentials of WTO Law (2nd ed., 2021).

2 Credits. Evaluation: Mid-term presentation and class participation (30%), Group research essay written during the last month of the course and presented during the last class (5000 words) (40%), Final take-home exam (1500 words) (8 hours) (30%).

Spring 2026 – Elective Courses

Students will receive an email when course requests open for the Spring 2026 semester.

Comparative Antitrust Law
Alison Jones, King’s College London

This module provides an overview, focusing on the EU and US antitrust systems, of why jurisdictions across the world put systems of competition law in place. It considers the US and EU laws, their goals, how they have been interpreted and applied, their enforcement structures, and their respective strengths and weaknesses. It examines how these laws govern certain business practices, including cartels, distribution agreements, the conduct of dominant firms, and mergers. It considers how legal, social, and economic factors, along with enforcement structures, have moulded the content of these laws and so why the two systems diverge. In this subject, you will reflect on the problems that competition laws aim to solve and explore how relevant courts and enforcement agencies in the US/EU have developed coherent and workable rules to achieve that objective. We also consider gaps in the laws, and the challenges involved in applying competition laws in the digital economy and explanations for divergences in approaches across the jurisdictions.

Core topics will include:

  • Why antitrust law? History and objectives
  • The antitrust laws and their enforcement structures
  • An introduction to key concepts
  • Cartels and horizontal cooperation
  • Vertical agreements
  • Abuse of dominance and monopolization
  • Merger control

2 Credits. Evaluation: Class participation (10%), Final take-home exam (8 hours) (90%).

Comparative Renewable Energy Law and Policy
Brad Jessup, University of Melbourne

In the context of international legal developments that have promoted the adoption of renewable energy generation within nation states, this course will explore and compare how nation states have developed their legal and policy frameworks to increase their renewable energy capacity.

The course will explore various topics that have been controversial or complex across nations, including offshore wind, transitional justice, Indigenous land access and consents, transmission infrastructure development, dam building, waste to energy, nuclear expansion/closure, government subsidy mechanisms, and storage capacity.

Students will confront the intersection and interdependence of law and policy, the role of politics and influence of citizen resistance in the energy transition, and they will learn about approaches to comparative legal analysis and research methodologies.

[The course will include a field trip to Paris to meet with the Secretariat of REN21.]

2 Credits. Evaluation: Attendance and class participation (15%), Joint/group class presentation (25%), Final paper (4,000 words) (60%).

Family Forms and Parenthood: Tensions Between Legal, Biological, and Social Parenthood
Alexandra Jungo, University of Fribourg

This course explores the evolving landscape of family forms and parenthood through the lenses of private law and human rights. It examines how new family forms and reproductive technologies – such as assisted reproduction, surrogacy and gamete donation – challenge traditional concepts of family, kinship, and parentage. Particular focus is given to the tensions between legal, biological, and social parenthood, as several recent and emerging tendencies across European law and policy indicate a growing recognicion of social parenthood.

Starting with an overview of various family forms, we explore the laws of parentage and filiation in different countries. We discuss how motherhood and how fatherhood are established. In doing so, we have to differentiate between legal, biological, and social parenthood. These three types of parenthood can be congruent, but they can also differ. This fact raises several questions : who are the legal parents and who are the social parents ? How do legal systems protect the right to know one’s origins ? To what extent are social parents granted legal recognition ? Is there a hierarchy among the different forms of parenthood? Can parenthood be determined or arranged privately ? What influence does the case law of the European Court of Human Rights’ have on the development of legal, biological, and social parenthood?

2 Credits. Evaluation: Attendance and class participation (20%), Case or country report presentation and 1000-word paper (40%), Final take-home exam (8 hours) (40%).

International Criminal Law
Alejandro Chehtman, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella

This course presents a condensed introduction to the normative foundations, institutional landscape and legal architecture of International Criminal Law. The first part will succinctly introduce the milestones of the discipline, from the Nuremberg/Tokyo trials, the Juntas Trial in Argentina and the creation of transitional justice in Latin America, to the establishment and inner workings of the ad hoc Tribunals and the International Criminal Court (ICC). The second part will examine the basis and limits of the legal authority of the ICC, both in terms of the scope of its personal and territorial jurisdiction and the immunities that can be invoked against it. It will also assess its selection of cases and situations and the charges of double standards, and the role of domestic courts exercising universal jurisdiction. The third part will examine the substantive law concerning core crimes, including crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide and aggression. The course will conclude with a critical assessment of the current state of ICL prosecutions both before international and domestic courts.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Final take-home exam (8 hours) and a bonus for participation in class (up to 20%).

International Economic Law: International Trade, Investment, Finance and Development
Jennifer Hillman, Georgetown Law

This course provides an introduction to the international legal and institutional frameworks that govern economic cooperation among nation states in key areas, including international trade, finance, investment and development. Considerable emphasis will be placed on the institutional dimension of cooperation, with a comparative review of the relevant international organizations (including the WTO, IMF, World Bank and OECD) and the law that underpins their missions.  The Course will identify the current challenges faced by each of these institutions in an environment where multilateral co-operation, although increasingly urgent, is also increasingly unpopular. The Course will conclude with a focus on cross-cutting issues, including the backlash to globalization and efforts to “decouple” or restrict the flow of capital, goods or technology to certain markets, or to reconfigure global supply chains; the efficacy of “soft law” and “soft institutions,” which are increasingly relied upon in an environment where countries are less inclined to surrender legal sovereignty through the creation of treaty obligations; and a case study on critical minerals and the national security, trade, development and investments issues arising as countries scramble to ensure ready access to critical minerals.

2 Credits: Evaluation: Attendance and class participation (20%), Paper outline (10%); Final Paper (3,500-4,000 words) (70%).

Philosophy of International Law: Institutions, Principles and Concepts
Ronaldo Porto Macedo Jr., Universidade de São Paulo

International law has undergone significant changes in recent decades, with a marked increase in its impact on social and economic relations worldwide. These changes have sparked renewed interest among legal theorists (particularly with the publication of several articles and the collection The Philosophy of International Law, by Samantha Besson and John Tasioulas (eds.), Oxford: Oxford University Press). While in the recent past it was seen as a “primitive or unfinished form” of state law, today it is conceived based on its own principles and rationales. This phenomenon provoked a reassessment of contemporary legal debate on the international law ground. The course will explore the meaning and relevance of recent theoretical debates on classic issues of international law, including sources, institutions, and central concepts such as sovereignty, the rule of law, legitimacy, and human rights. Studying several of these articles will enable us to revisit classic themes in legal theory in light of the new challenges posed by contemporary international law.

2 Credits. Evaluation Method: Class Attendance, Participation and In-Class Presentation (30%), Final take-home exam (8 hours) (2,500 words) (70%).

Populism, Constitutional Democracy and Law
Martin Krygier, University of New South Wales

In many countries across eastern and western Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa, so-called ‘populist’ parties have gained, or are close to gaining, power. Some are still trying (England, France, the Netherlands, Germany), some have come and gone but might be back (Brazil, Philippines, Poland), others are still there and planning to stay (Hungary, India, US).  All of them claim to be democratic, and most of them have novel and controversial interactions with constitutions and law.

This course will begin by asking what such regimes have in common and how they differ, focusing on what, if anything, is distinctive about populist legal and political aims, strategies,  methods, and consequences. The focus is particularly on populists-in-power: how they gain it, what they do with it, and how they  plan to, and do, change the political and legal landscape while they have power, and even after they lose it. What in particular are their effects on the practices and character of law and democracy? What do they do to and with laws, courts and constitutions? And what if anything distinguishes ‘constitutional populism’ and ‘populist democracy’ from other sorts?  We will also examine potential political and legal responses that might be available and appropriate  for partisans of legality and constitutional democracy in each of those stages: before, during and after.

2 Credits. Evaluation:  Attendance and class participation (30%), comprised of a written comment and class-leading exercise on an assigned week’s reading (20%) and general contribution to class discussion (10%); and Final take-home exam (8 hours) (2,500 words) (70%).

The Rule of Law: in Law and in Life
Martin Krygier, University of New South Wales and Ronaldo Porto Macedo Jr., Universidade de São Paulo

The rule of law has become one of the most prominent legal-political concepts in public discourse in the contemporary world. But though we talk a lot about the rule of law,  it is less obvious that we think very well about it. This course seeks to help students think better. It aims to acquaint them with an understanding of existing accounts of the rule of law, and equip them with the ability to think critically about and beyond such accounts, whether or not they ultimately come to agree with them. It will draw upon accounts by lawyers, legal philosophers, rule of law promoters, and students of law and society, as well as real-world case studies.

The course has an unavoidable transnational dimension. Societies differ and change, and the role of law, what is needed for the rule of law, and what challenges it faces, will vary with time, place, challenge and available responses. Many of these things – both challenge and response – are matters of life (and in some places death) as much or more than they are of law.  We need to try to understand both, and how they connect.

Students will be asked to appraise,  criticise and supplement traditional legal and philosophical accounts of the rule of law and what it is supposed to do, with comparative, sociological and political perspectives on the ways law actually works (and doesn’t work) in the world, what are the many and variable sources of challenge, as well of opportunity.  Challenges and attempts to respond, contemporary at the time of the course (eg authoritarianism, illiberal populism) will be the subjects of selected case studies.

3 Credits. Evaluation: Class Attendance, Participation, and In-Class Presentation (30%), Final take-home exam (8 hours) (2,500 words) (70%).

Transnational Financial Regulation
Christian Hofmann, National University of Singapore

This course offers an introduction to the regulation of financial institutions, markets, and services, with a particular focus on transnational (i.e., cross-border, harmonized, and internationally coordinated) regulatory approaches.

Students will explore the key risks associated with financial intermediation and the various regulatory strategies developed to address them. The course covers a broad spectrum of financial sectors—including banking, securities markets, payment systems, and emerging technologies such as central bank digital currencies and stablecoins. Special attention is given to the role of regulation in promoting financial stability while responding to innovation and cross-border challenges.

Through theoretical frameworks, case studies, and analysis of current policy debates, the course equips students with a solid understanding of how financial regulation operates in a globalized and rapidly evolving financial system.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Class participation and group presentation (30%), Final take-home exam (8 hours) (70%).

Transnational Gender and Environmental Justice
Brad Jessup, University of Melbourne and Alexandra Jungo, University of Fribourg

This course will trace the evolution, transplantation, and globalisation of the concepts and movements of gender and environmental justice within domestic and international laws. It will examine the intersections of feminist thought and environmental protection, examining in particular why and how environmental justice is gendered – in terms of harms and leadership.

Starting with a reflection of the origins of environmental justice in the United States and the development of gender-based rights internationally, the course will then explore the contemporary plural and manifold meanings and definitions of environmental justice and gender justice through a survey of community experiences with the law around the globe.

Using a case study methodology, which students will need to use in their own research papers, the course will then examine the role of international, transnational, and domestic laws in creating and resolving injustices to the environment and to women, and approaches to realise gender and environmental justice between nations, people and generations.

3 Credits. Evaluation: Attendance and class participation (10%), Research proposal and presentation (20%), Final paper (4,000 words) (70%).

ONE-PLUS OPTION:

For 1 extra credit, a limited number of students who need to fulfill a graduation requirement at their home university may write a major research paper. To obtain the extra credit, the student must (a) turn in a written outline of the paper for faculty comment relatively early in the semester, (b) turn in a complete first draft for faculty comment two-thirds of the way through the semester, and (c) write a paper of 6000 words, not including footnotes.

Please note that this course has not yet been approved as a WR course for Georgetown students.