Contract Law in International Arbitration

This 16-hour executive online course provides participants with a comparative and practice-focused insight into the contract law issues that arise most frequently in international commercial arbitration. It zooms in on five legal law systems that are commonly chosen in arbitration, and explores the substantive contract law questions that tribunals are required to adjudicate.

Overview

The Contract Law in International Arbitration executive short course addresses a recurring challenge in international commercial arbitration: the need to apply unfamiliar systems of contract law.

Arbitration routinely operates outside national bar admission rules, meaning practitioners may be required to interpret and apply governing laws from jurisdictions in which they have not trained. As a result, lawyers and arbitrators must frequently engage with foreign contract law in complex, high-stakes and high-value disputes. Even where parties retain local law experts, lead counsel must still understand, evaluate and explain foreign law arguments to the tribunal. Transactional lawyers face similar difficulties when negotiating governing law clauses without a clear understanding of how different legal systems may affect contractual risk and outcomes.

This executive short course provides a comparative analysis of contract law across five systems commonly chosen in international arbitration: English law, New York law, Singapore law, Swiss law, and French law. Through focused discussion of recurring issues — including interpretation, changed circumstances, termination, damages, agreed remedies, and third-party effects — the course equips participants with a practical framework for handling foreign contract law issues confidently in arbitration and at the drafting stage.

Aims

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Analyse and compare how English, New York, Singapore, Swiss and French law resolve the same contract dispute
• Advise clients strategically on governing law selection for cross-border contracts
• Apply foreign contract law principles accurately in arbitration submissions
• Identify which governing law is likely to favour a client’s position in a dispute
• Lead multi-jurisdictional arbitrations with greater confidence, including when examining legal experts
• Handle routine foreign law issues independently, reducing reliance on local counsel
• Position themselves as international arbitration specialists rather than single-jurisdiction practitioners

Target audience

• Dispute resolution lawyers and arbitrators working in international commercial arbitration
• In-house and private practice lawyers involved in negotiating and drafting cross-border contracts
• Legal professionals seeking deeper comparative expertise in governing law selection
• Advanced law students with prior exposure to arbitration or contract law may also benefit from attending this course.

The course is designed for an international professional audience.

Course content

Topics

• Introduction to the five governing law systems used in the course
• Applicable law in international arbitration and choice of law clauses
• Comparative approaches to contract interpretation
• Changed circumstances and hardship doctrines
• Termination rights and breach thresholds across systems
• Calculation of damages, including lost profits and mitigation
• Agreed remedies, including liquidated damages and limitation clauses
• Third parties and arbitral jurisdiction

Teaching materials

• Annotated slides
• Comparative reference matrices
• Practical exercises and drafting materials
• Pre-course readings
• Additional supporting materials provided via Moodle

Academic staff

Course convenor

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  Dr Paul MacMahon is an Associate Professor of Law at the LSE Law School and the Director of the Executive LLM Programme. His primary interests are contracts, commercial law, and international arbitration. Before coming to the LSE, Paul taught at Harvard and Cambridge. He studied at Oxford (BA, BCL, DPhil) and Harvard (JD), and served as a law clerk in the United States for Judge Guido Calabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Judge John Gleeson of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Paul also worked as a litigation lawyer in New York City and remains a member of the New York Bar. In addition to teaching at LSE, Paul is a regular Visiting Professor at Católica Global School of Law in Lisbon. His work has been cited in the English and Singapore Courts of Appeal, and he has served as an expert on English law in foreign court proceedings.

Professional staff

Course manager

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  Amanda Tinnams is the Short Course Manager at LSE Law School, bringing over two decades of experience managing short course programs. Amanda has successfully overseen courses offered on-campus, online and internationally. She is committed to creating impactful learning experiences that combine academic excellence with practical application, supporting professionals and organisations worldwide.

Course schedule and FAQs