This module is concerned with the principles and policies underlying the legal treatment of corporate bankruptcy. The impact of these procedures and approaches on third parties, for example corporate groups, secured and unsecured creditors, directors and employees, is also considered. Topics include: Overview of corporate bankruptcy; The role of corporate bankruptcy; Setting aside transactions; The pari passu principle and preferential claims; Secured creditors and security devices; The problem of corporate groups; Company directors in troubled times; Employees in distress.

Take-Home Exam Date: Friday 17 February  to Sunday 19 February 2017

Students will need to be available to complete their 48 hour take-home examination during the weekend specified.

This module examines a range of controversial issues in human and constitutional rights law from a comparative perspective. These issues include: abortion; euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide; gay sex and sodomy; religion in the public sphere; affirmative action; hate speech and denial of the holocaust; obscenity. We will approach them by comparing and contrasting judgments from courts all over the world, with a certain emphasis on cases from the U.S. Supreme Court, the Canadian Supreme Court, the South African Constitutional Court, the European Court of Human Rights, the U.K. Supreme Court, and the German Federal Constitutional Court. The goals of the module are, first, to introduce the students to the jurisprudence of those extremely powerful and influential courts, and, second, to invite them to think about and critically analyse some of the most controversial, difficult, and important rights issues of our time.

Take-Home Exam Date: Friday 17 February  to Sunday 19 February 2017

Students will need to be available to complete their 48 hour take-home examination during the weekend specified.

This module engages in a discussion of specific cases and issues regarding acquisition, ownership, and restitution of antiquities and works of art, and the problems that arise in regulating markets in art, antiquities and cultural artefacts. We will look at domestic (UK and US) and international legislation regulating the art and antiquities trades. Against this legislative background, the module examines important cases in disputes regarding looting and provenance of antiquities, and questions of commodification and sale of cultural artefacts and antiquities, including the issues that arise in the operation of the art market (dealers, museums, collectors and auction houses). ‘Art Law’ is a specialized area of practice and an emerging area of theory and scholarship. We will look at some of the cases and theory of art and law, including the practices of dealers and auction houses in valuing (and mis-valuing) art for sale; the recent developments in addressing the restitution of art taken during the Nazi era; museum loans and the cross-border movement of art; the restoration and conservation debate(s) and then turn to a scholarly and interpretive approach to the issues that arise in considering the art market. ‘Antiquity Law is an engagement with the problems of the market(s) in antiquities and the legal and ethical burdens on the participants in this trade. We will look at the practices and constraints that arise in the context of both private purchasers/dealers and museums acquiring antiquities. We will focus on the case that the government of Italy brought against Marion True, the erstwhile Curator of Antiquities at the Getty Museum, and we will consider how that ground-breaking prosecution changed some of the practices in this area, as well as added to the toolbox for nations seeking repatriation of cultural objects. We will also return to the questions that arise in dealer, auction house and museum policies more generally.

Take-Home Exam Date: Friday 17 February  to Sunday 19 February 2017

Students will need to be available to complete their 48 hour take-home examination during the weekend specified.

The principal focus of the module is upon methods of resolving disputes other than adjudication. The module brings together theory and observation of practice and is divided into two parts. In the first section students examine what motivates people to enter into disputes and the range of outcomes they seek, the history of the “informal justice” movement and the transformation of attitudes to dispute resolution in the UK and beyond. The emphasis in this part of the module is also on looking at the two primary forms of dispute resolution, negotiation and mediation. In the second part of the module specialist practitioners work with the class in exploring the interface between theory and practice and the different dynamics of disputes and their resolution in specific subject areas such as commercial law, community disputes, international law and family law. The module is designed to complement the option on Commercial Arbitration.

Take-Home Exam Date: Friday 2 June 2017 to Sunday 4 June 2017

Students will need to be available to complete their 48 hour take-home examination during the weekend specified.

The objective of the module is to provide students with a detailed understanding of remedies in a commercial context. The reading addresses both case law and academic commentary. The course focuses on the principles that govern commercial remedies and the debates in the literature. It does not seek to improve the students' drafting skills. Here is an indicative list of the issues that will be considered on the module:

1. The aims of commercial remedies: What interests and other policies may be served by the law when remedying commercial disputes?

2. The function of contract damages: How do the courts assess damages for breaches of contract? Should the courts do more to protect the claimant’s interest in performance? What limits are placed on the recovery or measure of damages?

3. Punishment: Is punishment of a defaulting defendant ever a legitimate aim in commercial remedies? Should punitive damages be given a greater role in English commercial law?

4. Agreed remedies: To what extent are commercial parties free to fix the remedies available to them in the event of breach? Does freedom of contract extend to the parties’ secondary obligations?

5. Unjust enrichment: What is the law of unjust enrichment? What is its relationship to the law of contract? What can commercial parties recover under the law of unjust enrichment?

6. Comparative law: How do other jurisdictions deal with these questions? What might the common law learn from civil law systems?

Take-Home Exam Date: Friday 2 June 2017 to Sunday 4 June 2017

Students will need to be available to complete their 48 hour take-home examination during the weekend specified.

This module examines the central issues in comparative constitutional law across a range of jurisdictions and from a variety of perspectives. The module opens with an introduction on the purpose of comparative constitutional law. The first substantive part discusses various approaches to the study of CCL as well as the migration of constitutional ideas (and related notions of constitutional borrowing, transplants etc). The second part deals with key constitutional concepts (constitution; rule of law; presidentialism, parliamentarism) which are discussed from a historical and comparative perspective. The point of these sessions is not to compare for the sake of comparing, but to equip you (the researcher) with the conceptual tools to do insightful, critical, and original comparative work of your own. The third part challenges the assumptions of liberal constitutionalism by examining constitutions in divided societies and authoritarian constitutionalism. The overall aim of the module is to develop students' understanding and use of many general theoretical explanations surrounding debates in CCL, and to develop students' critical/analytical approach to many of the questions facing judges and scholars in the next decade.

Take-Home Exam Date: Friday 2 June 2017 to Sunday 4 June 2017

Students will need to be available to complete their 48 hour take-home examination during the weekend specified.

This module examines the regulatory structures governing financial markets and financial services. It covers the main principles of international, EU and UK financial regulation with the aim of developing a critical understanding of the conceptual framework for financial regulation. This module focuses on financial stability, including macro and micro-prudential regulation, regulation of trading and market infrastructure, and on new and emerging issues in financial regulation.

The module does not aim to provide a detailed comparative account of financial regulation across countries, but international comparisons may be made where these are useful. In this context, students are encouraged to draw on their knowledge of their own national systems of regulation in making comparisons, and to apply the analytical perspectives suggested to those systems. The focus will be on the regulation of national and international aspects of financial services and markets, rather than on private law and transactional aspects.

No previous knowledge of financial market regulation or background in economics is required for those wishing to follow this module. Indeed, the module provides a good background for further study of both financial and economic law and economic analysis of law. For non-lawyers, a willingness to engage in legal analysis will be necessary, although a legal background is not required. The module might be regarded as complimentary to a number of other modules, including Law of Corporate Finance or International Financial Law and Practice I & II.

Topics include:

1. Unpicking the Great Financial Crisis
2. Mapping regulation for financial stability
3. States, Banks and Global Markets: the macroeconomic Background
4. The next Financial Crisis
5. Ethics in Finance
6. Market Integrity
7. The role of Consumers
8. Consumer Protection
9. Securities markets and Conduct of Business
10. Fast, global, decentralized– the Challenges of the Future

Take-Home Exam Date: Friday 2 June 2017 to Sunday 4 June 2017

Students will need to be available to complete their 48 hour take-home examination during the weekend specified.

Personal data is an important factor of production in data-driven economies, and the processing of personal data can generate significant economic and social benefits. Personal data processing can also have a detrimental impact on established rights and values, such as autonomy, privacy and data protection. As a result, legal frameworks to regulate personal data processing have been enacted across the world, with the EU legal model used as a blueprint. Yet, despite the development of such legal frameworks across the globe, critical questions remain unanswered. For instance, the objectives of data protection frameworks differ with some prioritising a fundamental-rights approach to data protection regulation while other frameworks are based on an economic free-trade rationale. Disagreement also persists regarding how the balance should be struck between effective data protection and other rights (such as freedom of expression and freedom of information) and interests (such as innovation and national security).

This module will critically evaluate the legal framework applicable to personal data processing. It will be do this predominantly with reference to the EU framework, as this has served as a model for over 80 other jurisdictions. However we will also examine the US legal framework as it differs considerably from other global legal regimes. Participants will be introduced to techniques and technologies for monitoring and processing personal data in the information society. In order to bring key issues to life, a number of case studies will be considered: the application of data protection rules to online behavioural advertising; to the Internet of Things; and to State surveillance.

Take-Home Exam Date: Friday 9 June 2017 - Sunday 11 June 2017

Students will need to be available to complete their 48 hour take-home examination during the weekend specified.

UK corporate law is an advanced corporate law module focusing only on UK law. The module covers in-depth the core areas of UK corporate law including:

• The conception of the UK company;

• separate legal personality and piercing the corporate veil;

• corporate actions in contract, tort and criminal law;

• the balance of power in the company between the board and the shareholder meeting;

• UK board composition regulation;

• Directors' duties and their enforcement;

• minority shareholder protection; and

• the role of company law in protecting creditors.

The module will rely on in-class case studies and problem questions to explore the applicable law and its development.

Take-Home Exam Date: Friday 9 June 2017 - Sunday 11 June 2017

Students will need to be available to complete their 48 hour take-home examination during the weekend specified.

This course is a continuation of LL412E. In International Economic Law II, topics to be covered may include: Services Liberalization under the GATS; Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights; Legal Regulation of Technical Barriers to Trade; Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, and Subsidies. In both courses, we will set aside time to consider topical issues, for example around public international regulation of global finance, regional economic integration, development and developing countries in the trading system, and environmental aspects of international trade..

Take-Home Exam Date: Friday 9 June 2017 - Sunday 11 June 2017

Students will need to be available to complete their 48 hour take-home examination during the weekend specified.