Course | Columbia Law School

This course is designed to introduce the student to several of the most frequently encountered types of strategic international business arrangements — including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic alliances, project finance, intellectual property licensing, and international private equity and venture capital transactions. We will compare and contrast deal elements common to international transactions regardless of type. In addition, we will look at how specific elements of the U.S. regulatory environment and foreign regulatory environments affect international transactions and will consider what kinds of barriers — legal, financial, cultural, commercial, practical and ethical — businesses face in cross-border deals. What are the elements that make a transaction truly international? How do international transactions differ from purely domestic ones? What is the role of the lawyer in international transactions? This course is targeted to second- and third-year law students and LL.M. and other postgraduate students who are contemplating a career in international corporate law. We will be taking a decidedly hands-on, practical approach to international deal-making, which will include close scrutiny and examination of actual deal agreements and related documents. Students will be responsible for weekly reading assignments, class participation (including mock negotiations), preparation of a five-page client memo, and a 25- to 30-page research paper on a topic of international business law as agreed upon with the instructor. Research paper qualifies as an LL.M. writing credit.