LAW 7559 - International Business Transactions

This course will satisfy the Experiential Course requirement and the Practice-Oriented Writing Requirement, but not both at the same time. This is a three-credit survey course designed to acquaint students with some of the issues involved in the conduct of business transactions generally, with an emphasis on cross-border matters. We will examine the various methods of doing business abroad, moving from relatively simple to progressively more involved transactions – for example, beginning with a basic sale and financing of goods across national borders to the establishment of a productive operation abroad through foreign franchisees, technology licensing arrangements and finally, direct investment in foreign enterprises. The last part of the course will focus on the resolution of international commercial disputes. We will study these transactions in a variety of political and economic settings – economically developed nations, developing-country markets and non-market economies in transition. Even though there will be some discussion of national controls and international regulation of trade, for example, the World Trade Organization and the North American Free Trade Agreement, the primary focus of the course is on private international business law (sales contracts, trademark licenses, intellectual property infringements, investment contracts, etc.). We will touch on an extensive range of substantive laws, such as the law of corporations, commercial transactions and the uniform commercial code, antitrust, intellectual property (copyright, trademark, patent), conflict of laws, civil procedure, contracts, international trade as well as public international law. Any knowledge or background in some of these areas will be helpful. However, there are no prerequisites for this course. The course is designed to help students become “practice ready.” That is, students will learn transactional skills and work with actual contracts. In addition to learning substantive laws and legal doctrine, students will also learn different strategies of negotiation. Negotiation skills will be incorporated into and seamlessly mesh with the substantive laws in different sections of the course. In this respect, students will not only learn how to draft and mark up different types of contracts but will also be exposed to different approaches to negotiation by engaging in simulated negotiations. These simulated negotiations play out in different settings - transactions, dispute resolution and other situations lawyers encounter in practice. There is no final examination. Instead, students will produce a legal memorandum of approximately 20 pages analyzing the legal issues for a client, based on an assigned problem. To ensure that the writing is of the caliber and complexity suitable as a writing sample for submission to a potential employer, students will turn in a draft for feedback before turning in the final memorandum. This course is an approved elective for the Business Law Certificate and the International Law Certificate. This course is limited to 10 students. Note: this course is offered every other year during the fall or the spring semester. Letter grade. 3 credits