This seminar is conducted in English. It is open to second year students in the bilingual program in law. It is delivered over 18 hours. It is intended to analyze the current implications of the globalization of flows of goods, services, capital, people and information. In 2008, a section is added on the law of the global environment. The use of economic and legal tools of analysis is emphasized.

Recommended texts:

Richard Schaffer, Beverly Earle, Filiberto Agusti, International Business Law and its Environment, Thomson, New York, 2005.

Paul R.Krugman and Maurice Obstfeld, International Economics, Harper Collins, New York, 2002

John Braithwaite and Peter Drahos, Global Business Regulation, Cambridge U., Cambridge, 2000

Part 1 - Introduction

Session 1 - Definition of and trends in globalization
Opening of borders to movements of goods and services, capital, people and ideas
Strategies of international corporate expansion

Advanced reading:
Globalization and the economic role of the state in the new millenium , Joseph Stiglitz

Assignment 1:
Read and summarize in 250-500 words the following article
The Globalization of Markets, by Theodore Levitt,
 

Part 2 - Globalization of markets for goods and services

Session 2 - Economic aspects of trade liberalization
Terms of trade and specialization

Assignment 2:
Download the Statistical Report of the World Trade Organization of 2007 and print out pages 3-8. Bring them to class, also bring at least two other statistical tables that you consider useful for preparing the following asignment. Prepare a 250 word series of conclusions you draw from this material as regards the evolution of the terms of trade of the European Union, of the United States and of China.
 

Session 3 and 4 - Legal aspects of trade liberalization
GATT/WTO
OECD

Assignment 3:
Prepare case reports on the following cases:
Japan v European Union - the Screwdriver case
 

Part 3 - Globalization of the capital markets

Session 5 - The role of capital flows
Strategies of direct investment
Strategies of international portfolio diversification

Web reading:
Principles of Compensation for Nationalized Property, Daniel Laprès
The Canada Development Corporation: A Proposal to Reconcile its Conflict of Objectives, Daniel Laprès

Assignment 4:
Find the latest statistics on flows of foreign direct ivnestment. Which are the leading 10 leading countries for receiving foreign investment as well as which are the first 10 for outflows of direct investment?

Session 6 - The regulation of international fows of financial services and of capital
WTO
IMF
Development banks

Web reading:
Ethics, Market and Government Failure and Globalization, Joseph Stiglitz

Session 7 - International financial crises
Causes
Contagion
Prevention
Management

Web reading:
Stock Market Crash of 1987
US and global financial crisis 2007-9
Long-term Capital Management
Baring's Bank

Part 4 - Globalization of manpower

Session 8 - Economic aspects of international migrations
The relationship between freedom of movement of goods and services, capital and labor
Immigration and the retirement financing problem

Web reading:
World population statistics
French naturalization statistics
French immigration statistics

Assignment 5:
Find and bring to class the most recent offical statistics on immigration to France.

Session 9 - Legal aspects of international migrations
Immigration policy
Human rights

Web reading:
Le modèle canadien de la régulation de l'immigration: à prendre ou à laisser?
French refugee admission statistics

Assignment 6:
Airey - Nnianzi

Part 5 - Globalization of communications

Session 10 - The communications revolution
Digitization and its implications for business (economics of networks, business strategies in a digital world)

Web reading:
The Global Village - McLuhan
Economics of Information Technology, by Hal R. Varian

Session 11 - Legal aspects of international communications
Ownership of digital properties
Jurisdiction
Language regulations
 

Web reading:
LICRA v yahoo -
Opportunités et risques juridiques survenant en relation avec les activités sur l'internet

Part 6 - The global environment

Session 12 - Regulation of the global environment
Convention on the Law of the Sea
Kyoto Protocol

Assignments for this session:
Prepare case reports on the following cases:

The Trail Smelter Case
Mexico v United States - the dolphin case