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Course

Globalisation and Commercial Law - LAWS8210

Faculty: Faculty of Law

School: Faculty of Law

Course Outline: See below

Campus: Sydney

Career: Postgraduate

Units of Credit: 6

EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)

Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 2

Enrolment Requirements:

Prerequisite: Academic Program must be either 9200 or 9210 or 9230 or 5740 or 9231or 5231 or 8418.

Excluded: JURD7593, JURD7710, LEGT5562

CSS Contribution Charge: 3 (more info)

Tuition Fee: See Tuition Fee Schedule

Further Information: See Class Timetable

View course information for previous years.

Description

Globalisation has reshaped our world but with a mixed track record. Many nations have prospered. Others have suffered. Some have prospered by ignoring the 'official rules' and making up their own. The consequences of poor governance of globalisation can be seen in East Asia's 1997 crisis, in Argentina's economic collapse, in the ongoing crisis in the WTO Doha Round, and in the failure of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment. This course is a study of how globalisation effects the sources of law that domestic legal systems draw upon, of how globalisation is governed and not governed, and of how this governance could be improved.

This course is also available to students enrolled in the Master of Risk Management (8418) in the Australian School of Business.


LLM Specialisations

Recommended Prior Knowledge

There are no pre-requisites for this course. A keen interest in the world and broad reading about the current state of the planet are an advantage.

Course Objectives

A candidate who has successfully completed this course should be able to:
  • Demonstrate that they have acquired reasonable knowledge of (i) the process of globalisation; (ii) how globalisation (ie, specially global trade, finance, investment and business) is governed and not governed and how this could be improved; (iii) how globalisation shapes the sources of law in Australia and abroad
  • Critically analyse and evaluate the process of globalisation, its governance and its effect on the law
  • Conduct advanced research and write a sustained research paper on an aspect of globalisation and the law

Main Topics

  • The global economic system: the architecture established at Bretton Woods in 1944
  • Globalisation: a critical overview
  • Contemporary global financial governance: the interplay of the IMF, World Bank, Bank for International Settlements and the Financial Stability Forum, among others
  • Contemporary global trade governance: the role of the WTO and its various treaties, the GATT, GATS, TRIPS and TRIMS
  • Contemporary global investment governance: the failure to establish the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (the MAI) and the failed attempt to revive the substance of the MAI in the current Doha Round of WTO negotiations. The limited role of TRIMS
  • Contemporary global business governance: how the technical standards that regulate global business are established and enforced. Which actors in the global system do these standards favour? What are alternative approaches to technical standard setting for business?
  • Globalisation and Labour: the one element to miss out on globalisation, big time
  • Globalisation and Non-state Actors: what is an appropriate role for NGOs
  • Law and Globalisation: Exporting the Rule of Law and rules of law, ie. the hazard of 'legal transplants'; importing the rules of law from abroad
  • Ways forward: how the governance of globalisation could be expanded and improved?

Assessment

Class participation Preparation and engagement in class 20%
Research paper 7,000 words 80%
 

Course Texts

Prescribed

  • L Boulle, Globalisation and the Law, forthcoming Federation Press, 2008
  • Selected Course Materials

Recommended

  • J Braithwaite & P Drahos, Global Business Regulation, Cambridge University Press, 2000
  • John Ralston Saul, The Collapse of Globalism, (Viking Penguin, 2005)
Law Books

Study Levels

Undergraduate Study Postgraudate Study Postgraduate Research Study Non-Award Study

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