Professor Jo Braithwaite

This course is available on the LLM (extended part-time), LLM (full-time) and University of Pennsylvania Law School LLM Visiting Students. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course has a limited number of places and demand is typically high. This may mean that you’re not able to get a place on this course.

LL4F2 examines legal issues which arise in the international financial markets based in London. This course looks at the legal aspects of financial contracts, transactions and structures which are widely used in the financial markets, such as ‘over the counter’ (OTC) derivatives and syndicated loans. We make close reference to certain sets of trade association drafted terms throughout the course, subject to obtaining the necessary licences from the trade associations in question. With an emphasis on private law, the course considers the relevant legal, commercial and regulatory background, and the risks and protections available to participants in the global financial markets. For example, we look in detail at contractual credit risk mitigation and default management processes including close-out, and we consider disputes that arise from financial contracts, in particular in periods of widespread market stress. The course is based upon an analysis of the relevant issues under English law with some reference to other systems for comparative purposes.

The course will be underpinned by in-depth discussion of the legal principles involved in international finance, but the case studies referenced will be topical. In this sense, the content of the course will be adapted to the fast-moving developments affecting international markets in capital and in risk (for example, in recent sessions the course has examined mis-selling litigation in the international derivatives markets, the ongoing regulatory reform of the OTC derivatives markets, CCP clearing, the debate about recovery and resolution of CCPs and CCP location policy, and the worldwide project of benchmark transition away from LIBOR to so-called ‘risk-free rates’).

This course will have two hours of teaching content each week in Lent Term and an additional two hours of teaching in the Summer Term. There will be a Reading Week in Week 6 of Lent Term.

Students will be asked to submit one essay, which may be completed in exam conditions. The course also involves individual and group presentations and other classwork.

Examples of texts which will be referenced on the course: J. Braithwaite, The Financial Courts: Adjudicating Disputes in Derivatives Markets (CUP, 2020); and L Gullifer and J Payne, Corporate Finance Law: Principles and Policy (Hart, 3rd edition, 2020). A full reading list will be distributed via Moodle.

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours, reading time: 15 minutes) in the summer exam period.

Assessment is by closed book written examination.