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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 Yuval Shany, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Peter Byrne, Georgetown Law (Fall 2022 only) and Julie Cohen, Georgetown Law (Spring 2023 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 (Fall 2022 only)
Yuval Shany, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The course seeks to introduce CTLS 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. They also include some non-state-based normative regimes of an a-national or de-territorialized nature such as investment protection schemes and social media community standards, and international regimes closely associated with domestic law, such as international human rights law and international criminal law. Through an examination of several case studies, the course aims to familiarize students with the principal forms of transnational law and the relations among them.

2 Credits, required. Evaluation:

1. Discussion papers (100%): Students will be required to submit 2 discussion papers over the course of the semester, one after mid-term break (Oct. 31) and one after the end of term (Dec. 16). These papers will count for 100% of the final grade (50% each). The papers should be around 1,000 words in length each and should provide critical analysis of one or more of the reading materials allocated for the course in light of the other materials discussed in class and/or in the readings.

2. Class Participation: Students who actively participate in class discussion in a manner that demonstrates deep familiarity with the assigned reading materials and the class materials, may get a bonus of up to 0.5 points.

Core Course: Transnational Law: Introduction and Selected Issues (Spring 2023 only)
Julie Cohen, Georgetown Law and Pascal Pichonnaz, University of Fribourg

This course seeks to introduce CTLS 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.” Philip C. Jessup, Transnational Law (1956). Today, the category of “other rules” that Jessup sought to highlight has grown considerably and includes a wide variety of non-state-based regimes such as (for example) financial stability mechanisms, arrangements for cross-border information sharing among law enforcement agencies, internet standards bodies, and social media content moderation processes. Additionally, Jessup had in mind that transnational law would (primarily) deal with interstices between blocks such as domestic law and  international law. As the course will show, things have evolved considerably since 1956, though the name has remained a useful tool. Through a series of case studies and experiential exercises, we will explore a selection of transnational governance arrangements. The goals of the course are: (1) to expose students to the variety and heterogeneity of such arrangements, and (2) to foster critical reflection on how effective lawyers working in fields shaped by transnational law understand the mosaic of relevant legal materials and institutions within which they operate as advocates, activists, and/or regulators.

2 Credits, required. Evaluation:

1. Two reaction papers (50%). Students will be required to submit two short, single-spaced reaction papers (800-1000 words) during the semester. Students should sign up in advance to write a reaction paper using signup.com. Papers should be submitted via Canvas by 2 pm on the Friday before the materials are discussed in class.

2. Class Participation (20%). We expect students to read the assigned materials with care, and to actively participate in the discussion. We reserve the right to call on any student who has written a reaction paper for the class. From time to time, students will be asked to engage in role playing or participate in other experiential classroom activities.

3. Final take-home essay (30%). Students will be required to write a longer essay (1000-1200 words) in response to a prompt that we will distribute at the end of the last class meeting. Essays will be due at the end of the final exam period, on 16 May 2023 at 5pm (BST).

Fall 2022 – Elective Courses

Students can now request Fall 2022 courses through Friday, June 24 using the CTLS Course Request Form-Fall Questionnaire in Studio Abroad.

Please see the Fall 2022 Class Schedule for weekly class timings.

Developing Countries in the World Trading System
Moshe Hirsch, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The course focuses on several major topics regarding economic development and the position of developing countries in the contemporary World Trade Organization (WTO) law. The course would address the principal dimensions and measurement of “underdevelopment” (GDP, GNI and the Human Development Index), the major approaches to development (the modernization, dependency, developmental state, neo-liberal, neo-institutional, and geographical approaches). Following a brief discussion of the central principles of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (including the MFN principle, tariffs, non-tariff barriers, national treatment and the general exceptions) special emphasis will be placed on the special position of developing countries in the WTO legal system. Thus, for instance, we will explore the particular position of developing countries with regard to tariffs (imposed on agricultural, textile and industrial productions) non-reciprocal trade preferences in favor of developing countries, import standards, and regional agreements between developing and developed countries (or among developing countries).

2 Credits. Evaluation: Class participation (20%), Class presentation (10%), Research paper (3,000-3,500 words) (70%).

EU Law in Times of Crisis
Oana Stefan, King’s College London

This course looks at current challenges in European Union law: the response to the war in Ukraine, the pandemic, Brexit, and the rule of law backsliding. Grounded in crisis studies, it equips students with the legal tools to assess such challenges, while acquiring a deep understanding of the general principles of EU law. Students will understand how the policy instruments choice, based largely on non-legally binding material, might affect, from a democratic perspective, the EU response to the pandemic. The limits to EU competences will be assessed while looking at current landmark cases on the rule of law, and the ways in which the Commission and the EUCJ have been dealing with the Polish and the Hungarian rule of law violations. Students will learn how the EU flexed its security muscle during the Ukraine crisis and will discuss the tools available under EU law to treat situations of military conflict and humanitarian crises. Brexit is used to explore legal disintegration: the disentanglement of the EU and the UK legal orders, what does it mean for judges, administrators, and practitioners in the UK.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Class participation (10%), Group presentations (30%), Individual reflections on the moot court (maximum 800 words) (20%), Final essay on a given topic (maximum 3,000 words) (40%).

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 6,000 words, not including footnotes.

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

International and Comparative Cultural Heritage Law
Peter Byrne, Georgetown Law

This course seeks to give students an introductory grounding in the law of cultural heritage protection, as well as in the policy debates that surround it. This law is inherently transnational, because cultures are shaped, shared, and commercialized across national borders. National heritage laws often treat regional and indigenous cultures as either within or without national cultures. International heritage regimes are dominated by states but have promoted the idea of “universal value,” as well as protecting regional and indigenous cultural expressions. The course examines briefly national legal regimes in a comparative perspective and considers in greater depth the chief international legal instruments and institutions. Field trips will encounter contested and celebrated cultural treasures.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Class participation (20%), Short paper (500 words) (Pass/Fail), Group assignment (1,500 words) (30%); Final paper (2,000 words) (50%).

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 6,000 words, not including footnotes.

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

International Commercial Litigation
Alberto Miglio, University of Torino

The course provides an overview of private international law rules on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in the area of commercial litigation, comparing the European approach (the Brussels I Recast Regulation) with common law systems. It covers the following topics: 1) Jurisdiction. 2) Choice-of-court agreements. 3) Parallel proceedings and related actions. 4) Recognition and enforcement of judgments.

Required textbook: Trevor C. Hartley, International Commercial Litigation, 3rd edition, Cambridge University Press, 2020, ISBN 9781108721134 (paperback) / 9781108774819 (digital).

2 Credits. Evaluation: Attendance and class participation (20%), Research paper (4,000 words) and its presentation in class (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 6,000 words, not including footnotes.

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

Introduction to International Criminal Law
Mark Kielsgard, City University of Hong Kong

This course will direct students to examine the models and methods of international accountability for crimes involving massive human rights violations; it will review the nature, character and legal elements of the crimes of genocide, serious war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression.  Students will review the history of international sanctioning bodies and identify jurisdictional constraints and other historical innovations and impediments. Students in this course will analyze contemporary international criminal law initiatives in relation to principles of public international law and domestic state practice with regard to both theory and practical applications and review current situations and on-going prosecutions.  Students will explore issues such as command responsibility, complementarity jurisdiction, the general principles of criminal law, and the interchange between political power and the judicial process in the international arena.  Students will also explore the jurisprudential mix (common law, civil law, international law, domestic law) utilized by the international criminal tribunals and consider their relative contributions toward eradicating impunity.

On completing the course students should understand the nature of vertical international law, the different mechanisms for the trial of international crimes and the constitutive documents that control them, the substantive offenses under international law and the rules and jurisprudence governing the international criminal law bodies.  Moreover, students should be able to identify the political ramifications of the international criminal law legal framework and apply what they have learned to modern developments and practices in international relations today.

Required textbook: “An Introduction to the International Criminal Court” by William Schabas, fifth edition, published by Cambridge University Press.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Final take-home exam (100%), Class participation: Students who provide quality in-class participation can receive up to one half grade enhancement.

Introduction to International Investment Law
Christophe Bondy, Alexandre Genest and Emmanuel Giakoumakis, Steptoe & Johnson LLP

​The course “Introduction to International Investment Law” seeks to introduce CTLS students to the international investment law regime, one of the most controversial and dynamic areas of Public International Law of the last half-century. International investment is a key source of financing, expertise, business connections and opportunity for most States; but the extent of obligations owed to international investors, and the inherent limitations such obligations place on State sovereignty, have generated intense consideration and controversy in the first two decades of our millennium. To better understand the current state of play, our lectures will retrace the historical origins and evolution of the international investment regime, and the political economy underlying international investment agreements (IIAs). We will examine key obligations contained in IIAs, including protection against uncompensated expropriation, prohibition of discriminatory treatment, and provision for fair and equitable treatment and full protection and security of foreign investors and their investments. In this regard, we will explore apparent conflicts that have arisen since the mid-1990s between the obligations to be upheld by host States vis-à-vis foreign investors and States’ right to regulate in the public interest. We also will consider the IIA dispute resolution process as illustrated by leading procedural and substantive rules systems, reviewing main trends and hot topics; the merits of recent efforts to reform IIAs; and more broadly, the future prospects of international investment law. Through these lectures, students will become familiar with the history and key legal issues arising out of the interpretation of IIAs, the literature surrounding recent attempts at reforming the system, and the main components of investor-State dispute settlement, allowing them to consider calls for and against the protection of international investment from an informed and critical perspective.

3 Credits. Evaluation: Attendance and class participation (30%), Final research paper and its presentation in class (4,000 words) (70%).

The European Union in the World: The Law of EU External Relations
Alberto Miglio, University of Torino

The course provides an overview of the legal aspects of EU external action. It addresses the following topics: competence; procedure; dispute settlement; the EU and international organizations; the interaction between EU law and international law; external relations and Common Foreign and Security Policy; the external effects of internal EU policies. Students are expected to work on first-hand sources (primarily the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union) and are encouraged to draw comparisons between the law of EU external relations and the constitutional framework of international relations in national legal orders they are familiar with. At the end of the course, students will be expected to have a good understanding of the specificities of the EU as an international actor, to possess the methodological tools to understand the content of EU international agreements and external policies, and to critically understand judgments and opinions of the Court of Justice of the European Union.

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

The Transnational Dimensions of Financial Regulation
Christian Hofmann, National University of Singapore

The world of finance is transnational by nature. The efficient allocation of money is one of the most elementary principles of finance. To limit such allocations to the national level would deprive investors of opportunities and stifle development, productivity and innovation. With capital flows being transnational, financial institutions had to evolve to follow suit, making them present in multiple jurisdictions these days. Unsurprisingly, the financial regulation of transnational capital flows, activities of financial institutions, and trade of financial instruments comes with challenges. If rules are merely set and enforced on the national level, compliance with different rules in multiple jurisdictions becomes difficult and costly for regulated institutions; national supervisors struggle with their task of monitoring the global activities of supervised institutions. Motivated by concerns for global financial stability, remarkable progress has been made by financial centres around the globe. This has come in the form of strengthening the alignment of regulatory principles and collaboration amongst regulators, especially since the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-9.

This course examines the reasons for and details of transnational regulatory alignments, with a focus on banks as the most important and heavily regulated financial intermediaries. The operations of financial institutions, financial markets, and their supervisors in normal times will be contrasted with crisis measures. Due to its transnational focus, this course will emphasise on global principles more than national rules. Where necessary or helpful, references will be made to specific jurisdictions, especially from Europe and Asia.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Class participation and short presentations in class (30%), Final take-home exam (70%).

The Transnational Dimensions of Money and Central Banking
Christian Hofmann, National University of Singapore

The global financial crisis of 2007-9 led to many changes in the financial world. One of the most significant is the perception of central banks as not only guardians of monetary stability, but also guarantors of financial stability and emergency managers during crises. With inflation soaring worldwide, global supply chains seriously disrupted by the lingering pandemic and war in Europe, central banks are once again called upon to resolve a crisis of utmost complexity. At the same time, the traditional concept of money has come under pressure, especially its store of value and means of exchange components. This has been largely fuelled by punitive interest rates on deposits in parts of Europe and the rising popularity of cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and other digital tokens.

This course provides a solid understanding of the role of central banks, their monetary policy operations and legal frameworks that draw limits to their activities. It also examines the transnational effects of monetary policy operations that reach far beyond the borders of a central bank’s jurisdiction. The course also highlights shared principles (as well as differences) of how central banks execute their assigned tasks and pursue their objectives in different parts of the world, especially in the US, Euro-area, other parts of Europe, and Asia. This includes discussions on the concept of money and the process of its creation, the changes to the understanding of money over time, the current surge of new concepts of monetary value, and the reactions of central banks thereto, especially the concept of central bank digital currency.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Class participation and short presentations in class (30%), Final take-home exam (70%).

Spring 2023 – Elective Courses

Students will receive an email when the Spring 2023 Course Request Form opens.

Please see the Spring 2023 Class Schedule for weekly class timings.

Bioethics and the Law in Legal Comparative Perspective
Simona Novaretti, University of Torino

The course aims to define the complex relations among law, ethics and the body in different legal cultural settings, through a comparison among international, Euro-American (“Western”) and Asian (“Eastern”) legal patterns and attitudes.

In particular, the course analyses the impact of philosophical and religious traditions on the development of the concept of physical body and of the events related to it, such as birth, life, suffering (physical pain), and death in different area of the world. Then, it explores if and how the interplay among diverse moral principles have affected the way in which biotechnological innovations have been received and regulated by international and national legal systems. The course deals with topics such as assisted procreation, gestational surrogacy, abortion, organ transplantation, genetic engineering, cloning, medical ethics, animal testing and euthanasia. Each issue will be analysed using the tools of comparative law, to understand whether friction points in regulating the biosciences exist, both theoretically and operationally, among different legal traditions and legal systems within them, and how they look like.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Class participation (30%), Research paper (4,000 words) on a topic related to the course (70%).

Comparing Financial Regulatory Architectures in Federal States: the USA and the EU as Examples
Alexander Türk, King’s College London

This course explores the financial regulatory architecture of the European Union and the United States. This is an area, in which the EU has only recently asserted more centralised control, mainly due to the financial problems of financial institutions and Member States following the recent financial crisis. A comparison with the more established regulatory regime for financial services in the US will highlight the differences and similarities of both systems.

The course will focus on the regulatory architecture of financial regulation in the US and the EU. We will first discuss the evolution of financial regulation in the US, which over time has created a multitude of federal regulators (such as the SEC, the OCC, or the Federal Reserve Board) with considerable powers of rule-making, supervision and enforcement. We will then sketch out the regulatory frameworks and regulatory perimeter of US financial regulation. This will be followed by an introduction of US banking and securities regulation as well as the regulation of financial conglomerates, before examining in more detail supervisory and enforcement powers of federal and state agencies in these fields. We will then compare the US system with the new institutional architecture of the European Supervisory Authorities, as well as the regulatory and enforcement tools at their disposal. We will begin by looking at the evolution of EU financial regulation, before considering in more detail the Union’s regime of law-making, administrative ruling-making, supervision and enforcement of EU financial services. This will also include a discussion of the Single Supervisory Mechanism as one aspect of the EU’s banking union. We will pay particular attention to how the respective regulatory regimes have evolved following the changes brought about by the financial crisis of 2008. This will allow us then to draw some conclusions as to the idiosyncratic differences of both legal systems and areas of alignment in their respective structures.”

3 Credits. Evaluation: Class participation (20%), Final take-home exam (8 hours) (2,500 words) (80%).

EU Law
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, structure and current challenges of the European integration project.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Class participation (20%), Final take-home exam (8 hours) (2,500 words) (80%).

Global Contract Law and the Digital Economy
Pascal Pichonnaz, University of Fribourg

One of the six priorities of the European Union is an EU digital strategy to ensure a digital transition empowering people and businesses with the new digital technology. Law is part of the framework of this strategy. Contract law plays an important role in this respect. Some hard laws, but also some soft laws intend to create the conditions for the Digital Economy to function. The course will discuss some of these important documents, such as the new Digital Services Act, which will affect the digital commerce, or the new Omnibus Directive, but also soft laws such as the ALI-ELI Principles for a Data Economy: Data Transactions and Data Rights, which tackle all important contracts linked to the data economy, as well as some very recent Principles on automated contracting and digital assets as securities.

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

International Human Rights Law
Yuval Shany, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The course proceeds in three segments. The first segment introduces the idea of human rights from an historical, philosophical, analytical and critical perspective. The focus of this segment is on the development of international human rights law within the UN system and its implications for international law and politics. The second and main segment of the course is devoted to the study of key international human rights notions and concepts and their application in specific human rights instruments and contexts. Among the issues discussed in this segment are right relativism/absolutism, extra-territorial application of human rights, positive/negative obligations, derogations and reservations, interplay between different rights, group rights, digital human rights and the application of human rights at times of war.  The third and last segment of the course explores the right enforcement mechanisms that have been put in place at the global, regional and national levels.

3 Credits. Evaluation: Final take-home exam (8 hours) (100%), Students who actively participate in class discussion in a manner that demonstrate deep familiarity with the assigned reading materials and the class materials, may get a bonus of up to 0.5 points.

Introduction to Chinese Law
Simona Novaretti, University of Torino

The course provides an overview of the basic institutions of legal system that is operating in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the fundamental concepts in the core areas of Chinese Law. The emphasis of the teaching is not on the “black letter law” but it is on the distinctive features of the Chinese legal system and major similarities and differences between this system and Euro-American legal systems.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Class participation (30%), Research paper (4,000 words) on a topic related to the course (70%).

Law and Revolution
Hamish Stewart, University of Toronto

What is the relationship between the idea of legal order and the idea of revolution – the (frequently violent) replacement of one legal order with another? Some have argued that by its nature a legal order cannot contemplate being replaced, while others have argued that the possibility of revolution is the ultimate guarantee of the rights of the people. This seminar course will explore a number of questions related to this debate. How can law contemplate the possibility of revolution? Can a revolution be brought about in accordance with law or in the service of legal values? Do legal values have any relevance in revolutionary situations? How can law understand a non-violent revolution? What is the relevance of pre-revolutionary law in a post-revolutionary legal order? What, if anything, does revolution do to law? Can thinking about revolutions teach us anything about the nature of law? Is there any difference between revolution and the exercise of constituent power? Readings may include, among others, texts by Locke, Kant, Marx, Luxemburg, Lukács, Pashukanis, Weil, Kelsen, Schmitt, Derrida, Mouffe, and MacKinnon.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Contributions to classroom discussion (10%), five 250-word (one-page) comments on the readings (25%), and a final paper, involving careful reading of a text that was not assigned for the class (65%).

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 6,000 words, not including footnotes.

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

Technology Platform Governance in Global Perspective
Julie Cohen, Georgetown Law Center

This course will focus on the political economy, governance, and legal regulation of global technology platform giants. After providing an introduction to the structure and operation of technology platforms, it will draw upon case studies from different parts of the globe that highlight, among others: issues relating to searching for, retrieving, and removing content from platforms; issues relating to the misuses of social media to influence elections and inflame public opinion; the ways that platform operations challenge existing legal frameworks for privacy and data protection; the ways that platform-provided services challenge existing legal frameworks for competition, consumer protection, and financial regulation; platform entanglement with policing and state security; and new proposals for platform regulation prompted by the movement for algorithmic fairness, accountability, and transparency.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Class participation (20%), Four long (800-1000 words) reaction posts (80%). Evaluation for students taking the one-plus option: Class participation (20%), Four short (200-300 words) reaction posts (20%), First draft of research paper (20%), Final draft of research paper (40%).

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 6,000 words, not including footnotes.

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

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.

This course is an introduction to the law of the WTO 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 via the extensive legal developments happened in lengthy international negotiations called “Rounds” (1). The course then delves into the details of WTO institutional design (2) and of selected areas of WTO law and practice: the GATT and free movement of goods (3), the GATS and free movement of services (4), Trade in agriculture and food (5), Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) (6), Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) (7), Subsidies (8) and trade remedies (9). A final session will be dedicated to recent challenges which the WTO is facing because of the collapse of the Doha Round, the increasing utilisation of free trade agreements and mounting political opposition all around the world (10).

2 Credits. Evaluation: Class participation (20%), Final take-home exam (8 hours) (2,500 words) (80%).