LL4AN Half Unit
International Business Transactions: Conflict of Laws, Extraterritoriality, and Global Governance
This information is for the 2025/26 session.
Course Convenor
Dr Jacco Bomhoff
Availability
This course is available on the LLM (extended part-time), LLM (full-time), MSc in Law and Finance 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 uses controlled access as part of the course selection process.
How to apply: Priority will be given initially to LLM, MSc Regulation and MSc Law and Finance students on a first-come-first-served allocation.
Spaces permitting, requests from all other students will be processed on the same first-come-first-served allocation from 10am on Thursday 2 October 2025
By submitting an application, students are confirming that they meet any pre-requisites specified. Providing an additional written statement will not aid a student's chances of being accepted onto a course, and statements are not read.
Deadline for application: Not applicable
For queries contact: Law.llm@lse.ac.uk
This course has a limited number of places and we cannot guarantee all students will get a place.
Knowledge of conflict of laws (private international law) would be useful but is not essential.
Course content
States or regional organizations often aim to regulate activities that transcend their own borders. When such measures are challenged or enforced through litigation, domestic courts become important sites of global governance. This course brings together perspectives from tort & company law, private international law (conflict of laws), public international law, and regulation theory, to study such forms of ‘extraterritorial’ and transnational regulation. Questions for discussion include: What law should a court in England apply to a case involving environmental damage allegedly caused abroad by a multinational mining company? Should companies operating in China ever be bound by US competition law rules or other US regulations? How free should companies be to choose the law they want to apply to their transactions? Topics to be studied throughout the course are: (1) Choice of law in contract and tort law (especially in Europe and the US); (2) Extraterritorial reach of statutes (incl. competition law, securities law, internet regulation; environmental regulations; and other case studies); (3) theories of transnational regulation (the institutional roles of courts, problems of regulatory arbitrage, global governance). Some seminars on specialist topics are taught by faculty colleagues with expertise in these areas.
Teaching
20 hours of seminars in the Winter Term.
This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.
Formative assessment
All students are expected to produce one 1,800 word formative essay during the course.
Indicative reading
Core textbook: Trevor C Hartley, International Commercial Litigation (Cambridge University Press, 3rd edn, 2020) (specified chapters only). Further reading: Christopher Whytock, Domestic Courts and Global Governance, 84 Tulane Law Review (2009);; Brilmayer, Goldsmith & O’Hara O’Connor, Conflict of Laws: Cases and Materials (7th edn., 2015).
Assessment
Exam (100%), duration: 150 Minutes in the Spring exam period
Key facts
Department: LSE Law School
Course Study Period: Winter Term
Unit value: Half unit
FHEQ Level: Level 7
CEFR Level: Null
Total students 2024/25: 34
Average class size 2024/25: 34
Controlled access 2024/25: NoCourse selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.
For this course, please see the following link/s:
LL4AN International Business Transactions: Conflict of Laws, Extraterritoriality, and Global Governance Course Guide Video https://youtu.be/UFs-KUtrWNI