Mona Paulsen

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. For information on controlled access courses, including eligibility, application processes, deadlines, and departmental contact details, please refer to the Controlled Access Courses webpage.

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 1 October 2026

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 no prerequisites and is intended to be both an introduction and a complement to other course offerings at LSE Law. Students with no previous background in public international law may find it helpful to consider consulting G. Hernandez, International Law (2019). Students with deeper interests in cross-border trade, international investment, international financial law and arbitration are encouraged to consider the intersection of this course with other course offerings.

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

“International Economic Law and Development” (IELD) is an interactive and engaging seminar that examines how international trade, investment, and financial rules and institutions (collectively, the international economic law) affect states’ development, and vice versa – that is, the political and economic forces that shape development practices and, in turn, constitute the international economic order. 

Students will learn through participatory weekly discussions drawing on a wide range of readings, including country case studies, legal instruments, and scholarly work. Every week, students will compare state experiences and development challenges to refine their thinking and deepen their learning. The course welcomes all students and requires no background in international economic law.

After completing the course, students will be able to analyse the functions and challenges of economic growth and development, using interdisciplinary approaches and country case studies to deepen their understanding of international economic law. In addition, they will be able to analyse the roles of international economic law and institutions in encouraging, measuring, and facilitating development.

The course comprises three parts: theoretical foundations, institutions, and challenges.

In each seminar, students will analyse international economic law through a development lens. The seminar begins by providing a theoretical foundation. Students will clarify and reflect on different conceptions of development and the relationship between law and development, drawing on interdisciplinary approaches (e.g., sociological, economic, institutional history, and anthropological). Thereafter, students will examine the design and development of international and transnational rules, mechanisms, and institutions. Students will investigate a full range of actors and legal instruments that govern and shape the global economy at international, transnational, regional, and local levels. In doing so, students will assess the complex relationship between law as and law for development in international, transnational, and domestic economic ordering.

In the second half of the course, we utilise our theoretical frameworks to appraise the practice of international institutions and their contribution to states’ development goals. Students will evaluate how international rules and institutions governing trade, foreign direct investment, foreign aid, and international lending shape states’ development approaches. Students will assess the relationships among politics, economics, and law by studying case studies from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization, and by examining why and how developing countries enter into investment treaties.

In the third and final part of the course, we will explore emerging issues in the international economic order, including the incorporation of international rights into trade agreements, economic security and risk, China’s export-led development approach, climate change, or digital technologies. Students can diagnose the challenges of global economic governance by drawing on our comparative studies of institutions and state development approaches. 

20 hours of seminars in the Winter Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.

One 2,000 word formative essay during the course.

There is no singular textbook for the course. Reading assignments are provided for each seminar on Moodle and draw from various primary and secondary source materials, accompanied by reading guides and handouts to enhance student learning. LL4AV strives to string together a wide variety of materials, including cross-disciplinary readings, videos and podcasts.

Indicative scholarly readings include primary materials, such as The World Bank’s Development Reports, the International Monetary Fund’s Articles of Agreement, or Minutes of the General Council Meeting for the World Trade Organization.

Additionally, indicative academic scholarship includes the following examples: A. Anghie, Imperialism, Sovereignty and the Making of International Law (2005); A. Roberts and N. Lamp, Six Faces of Globalization (2021); M. Erie, “Chinese Law and Development” 61(1) Harvard International Law Journal (2021); M.J. Trebilcock and M. Moto Prado, What Makes Poor Countries Poor? Institutional Determinants of Development (2011); J. Bonnitcha et al., The Political Economy of the Investment Treaty Regime (2017); L. Eslava, Local Space, Global Life: The Everyday Operation of International Law and Development (2015); A. Narlikar, Power Narratives and Power Paradoxes in International Trade Negotiations and Beyond (2020); A. Santos et al., World Trade and Investment Law Reimagined: A Progressive Agenda for an Inclusive Globalization (2019); A. Sen, Development as Freedom (1999); N. Woods, The Globalizers: The IMF, the World Bank, and their Borrowers (2012); H. Wang, “The Belt and Road Initiative Agreements: Characteristics, Rationale and Challenges,” World Trade Review (2021); G. Shaffer, Emerging Powers and the World Trading System (2021); and, S. Pahuja, Decolonising International Law; Development, Economic Growth and the Politics of Universality (2011).

Exam (100%), duration: 150 Minutes in the Spring exam period.