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Course

International Financial System: Policy and Regulation - LAWS8220

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:

Academic Program must be either 9200, 9210, 5740, 9230, 9231 or 5231

Excluded: JURD7520

CSS Contribution Charge: 3 (more info)

Tuition Fee: See Tuition Fee Schedule

Further Information: See Class Timetable

View course information for previous years.

Description

This course is about how the international financial system works, and doesn't work, and how its governance could be improved at the national and international levels. It examines the IMF, World Bank and other parts of the international financial architecture, analyses the recurrent crises of the past 25 years, and considers the potential regulatory measures at the national and global level to improve the system. This course is vocationally relevant to those who work, or want to work, for capital markets law firms, regulatory agencies, banks and finance houses. It is of general educational relevance to anyone who wishes to understand the forces shaping the global economy.


LLM Specialisations

Recommended Prior Knowledge

None

Course Objectives

A candidate who has successfully completed this course should be able to:
  • Demonstrate that they have acquired reasonable knowledge of: (i) the international financial architecture including the roles of the Bank for International Settlements, IMF and World Bank; (ii) the development of the international financial system since WWII and the recent crises therein; (iii) the regulatory options available to individual nations to improve their interaction with global capital; and (iv) the available systemic regulatory options to improve the system
  • Critically analyse and evaluate the international financial system
  • Conduct advanced research and write a sustained research paper on a contemporary topic regarding the international financial system

Main Topics

  • The role of the rule of law in a modern economy and the historical development of the international financial markets
  • The establishment and roles of the Bank for International Settlements, IMF and World Bank
  • A recent history of international financial markets, 1974 to date, and recent crises in emerging markets
  • Debt relief: the HIPC and MDRI initiatives
  • Regulatory measures available to individual nations: capital controls, exchange rate policies, fiscal crisis-adjustment policies, responses to bail-outs, etc.
  • Potential systemic regulatory measures: a Tobin tax, a sovereign bankruptcy regime, a global financial regulator, a global lender of last resort

Assessment

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

Course Texts

Prescribed

  • Ross P Buckley, International Financial System: Policy & Regulation, Kluwer Law International, London, 2008
  • Selected Course Materials
Recommended
  • R Grote & T Marauhn (eds), The Regulation of International Financial Markets, Cambridge University Press, 2006
  • M Pettis, The Volatility Machine, Oxford University Press, 2001
Law Books

Study Levels

Undergraduate Study Postgraudate Study Postgraduate Research Study Non-Award Study

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