Education

A key objective of the CPII is to provide students with a challenging learning environment in which they can participate in — and draw on — the various activities carried out by the Program. In addition, seminars and courses at Columbia provide students with the opportunity to deal with FDI matters — or issues related to it — in detail.

International Investment Syllabus Project

One immediate result of the Second Columbia International Investment Conference, “What’s Next in International Investment Law and Policy?” (October 30-31, 2007), was the launch of an international investment “syllabus project”. Professor Andrea K. Bjorklund from University of California at Davis, School of Law, is leading the effort on behalf of the Columbia Program on International Investment (CPII).

The ultimate objective of the project is to construct a model syllabus for international investment law and make it available to institutions of higher learning throughout the world, especially in emerging markets. The first step in achieving this objective is to ascertain what classes are currently being offered and their content. Therefore, we are collecting syllabi in the area of international investment law and related public policy issues, with a view to making them available on the CPII website. This will help students, scholars, and practitioners interested in the subject to know at a glance the menu of courses that are available around the globe. The second step will be a consultative process involving investment professionals, including academics, arbitrators, counsel, and government officials, to examine the syllabi gathered, identify lacunae, and discuss different models for investment law instruction. Finally, we will put together a model syllabus for a course on international investment law.

We invite international investment law and policy scholars to send their course syllabi to Professor Bjorklund at [akbjorklund at ucdavis dot edu].

Foreign Direct Investment and Public Policy

This seminar, led by Dr. Karl P. Sauvant, addresses the role of foreign direct investment (FDI), as undertaken by transnational corporations (TNCs) (or multinational enterprises), in the economic growth and development of host countries and national policy and regulatory issues this role raises. More specifically, it begins with a brief review of TNC strategies, before looking at the salient features of FDI and the factors that drive its expansion and that will be doing so in the future (especially emerging market TNCs, offshoring). An assessment of the role of FDI in trade, the transfer of technology and competition (especially as regards mergers and acquisitions) follows. While the discussion of the impact of FDI will deal with policy and regulatory issues, the remainder of the seminar focuses entirely on the role that policies, laws and regulations can play in maximizing the positive and minimizing the negative effects of TNCs, starting with an examination of tensions over FDI and TNC activity, and continuing with issues related to policies to attract FDI, host and home country policies, corporate social responsibility and the rise of international investment agreements. A debate about whether or not FDI contributes to economic growth and development, and policy issues related to this question, concludes the seminar.

The seminar was first offered in the spring semester of 2005/2006 and then again in the fall semesters of 2006/2007 and 2007/2008.

Foreign Investment

This seminar, led by Prof. José E. Alvarez, examines domestic laws, particularly within the United States, bilateral treaties, regional arrangements (such as the NAFTA), and international organizations (such as the WTO) insofar as these regulate either incoming or outgoing foreign investment. The emphasis is on the regulatory schemes that affect foreign investment as well as the underlying policy rationales offered for these. Attention will be given to the pros and cons with respect to foreign investment, especially given recent critiques of globalization and the connections between foreign investment flows and economic development. The focus is on foreign direct investment, that is, ownership subject to active control and not passive investment (as through stock ownership).

This seminar is being offered in the spring semester of 2007/2008.

International Investment Arbitration

This seminar, led by Prof. Pieter Bekker, deals with various forms of international commercial arbitration. The International Arbitration Rules of the International Chamber of Commerce, the American Arbitration Association, UNCITRAL, and the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes are given special attention. Problems of foreign and American law relating to the drafting of arbitration agreements, the conduct of arbitration proceedings, and the enforceability of arbitral awards are studied. The stress is on practical aspects. The aim of the course is to prepare for the actual conduct of an arbitration proceeding.

This course was offered in the fall semester of 2007/2008.

Transnational Litigation and Arbitration

This course, led by Prof. George Bermann, covers the basic procedural problems that occur in disputes arising out of transactions that cross national boundaries. The focus is on access to American courts by foreign litigants, jurisdiction over foreign defendants, parallel litigation, pleading and proof of foreign law, effecting service and obtaining evidence abroad (particularly in light of foreign blocking measures), transnational provisional relief, immunities and defenses (e.g., foreign sovereign immunity, sovereign compulsion, and act of state), international human rights litigation in US courts, and the enforcement of foreign judicial judgments. An entire chapter of the course is devoted to the procedural aspects of international commercial arbitration and the relationship between arbitral tribunals and courts.

This course is being offered in the spring semester of 2007/2008.

International Commercial Arbitration

This course, led by Prof. Hans Smit, deals with various forms of international commercial arbitration. The International Arbitration Rules of the International Chamber of Commerce, the American Arbitration Association, UNCITRAL, and the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes are given special attention. Problems of foreign and American law relating to the drafting of arbitration agreements, the conduct of arbitration proceedings, and the enforceability of arbitral awards are studied. The stress is on practical aspects. The aim of the course is to prepare for the actual conduct of an arbitration proceeding. Various writing exercises are included.

This course was offered in the fall semester of 2007/2008.

Seminar in US Foreign Economic Policy

This seminar, led by Prof. Richard N. Gardner, is by application only.  Members of the seminar will act as a bipartisan Presidential advisory group reviewing current issues in U.S. foreign economic policy.  The political and economic as well as the legal aspects of each issue will be examined, with particular attention to actions that should be taken by Congress and the U.S. Administration.  The seminar will draw upon Prof. Gardner's current work as a member of the State Department's Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy and his past work on the President's Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations.

 

This seminar is being offered in the spring semester of 2007/2008.

 

Related courses

Apart from the over 50 courses relating to international and comparative law it offers on an annual basis, the Columbia Law School also has one of the richest curriculums on corporate law and international business of any US law school.  The listing below indicates those courses and seminars that are being offered in the 2007-2008 academic year, to check on further details of these courses go to the Curriculum Guide.

José E. Alvarez	International Law
	Law of Global Governance and Regulation
Mark Barenberg	Labor Rights in a Global Economy (seminar)
Norman Bartczak	Financial Statement Analysis & Interpretation
George Bermann and Katharina Pistor	Lawyering across Multiple Legislative Orders (First-year Elective)
George Bermann, Petros Mavroidis and Kyle Bagwell	WTO Law (seminar)
John Coffee, Jr.	Securities and Capital Markets
Lori Damrosch	International Law
	Enforcing International Law (seminar)
	Scholarship in International Law (seminar)
Michael Doyle	Global Constitutionalism
Anthony Ewing	Transnational Business and Human Rights (seminar)
Jill Fisch	Securities and Capital Markets
Caird Forbes-Cockell	International Financial Transnactions
Merritt Fox and Larry Gloston	Law & Economics of Capital Markets
Alejandro Garro	International Business Transactions in Latin America (seminar)
Ronald Gilson and Victor Goldberg	Deals
Ronald Gilson and Curtis Milhaupt	Law, Governance and Capitalism (seminar)
Harvey Goldschmid	Corporations
Harvey Goldschmid and Philip Lochner	Corporation and Modern Society (seminar)
Jeffrey Gordon	Advanced Corporate Law: Mergers & Aquisitions
Jeffrey Gordon and Jesse Fried	Current issues in Corporate Governance
Zohar Goshen	Corporations
	Law & Economics of Coporations & Securities Markets (seminar)
Michelle Greenberg-Kobrin	Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal (seminar)
Scott Hemphill	Antitrust and Trade Regulation
Mitchell Kane	Corporate Taxation
	Tax and Development (seminar)
Arthur Kaufman	Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal (seminar)
Igor Kirman and Trevor Norwitz	Deals Workshop: Mergers & Acquisitions (seminar)
Jonathan Klick	Corporate Finance
P. Nicholas Kourides and Paul Lee	International Banking & Financial Law (seminar)
Tamara Lothian	International Finance: Law, Money & Banking in the Global Economy (seminar)
Petros Mavroidis and Jagdish Bhagwati	Law of the WTO
Petros Mavroidis and Merit Janow	Comparative and International Antitrust Law (seminar)
James McHugh	Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal (seminar)
Curtis Milhaupt	Corporations
Harvey Miller	Corporate Reorganization and Bankruptcy
Richard Miller and Stephen Selig	Derivatives Law & Regulation (seminar)
Edward Morrison and Scott Hemphill	Law and Economics (seminar)
Owen Nee	International Business & Investment Transactions with China (seminar)
Ilan Nissan	Deals Workshop: Transactional Legal Strategies (seminar)
Katharina Pistor	Corporations
Katharina Piston and Michael Doyle	Global Governance (seminar)
Katharina Pistor and Tamara Lothian	Globalization in Comparative Perspective
Donald Rapson	Secured Transactions
Alex Raskolnikov	Taxation of Financial Instruments
Joeng-ho Roh	Contemporary Issues in Business Law: South & North Korea
Charles Sable and William Simon	Regulation: Decentralization and Globalization
Silke Sahl	Adavnce Legal Research: International Law (seminar)
William Savitt	Deals Litigation
Olivier de Schutter	Globalization & Human Rights (seminar)
Scott Semer	Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal (seminar)
Joel Slemrod	Tax Policy and the Law
Hans Smit	Conflict of Laws and Jurisdictions: National/International
	International Commercial Arbitration
Richard Stone	Corporate Taxation
Gail Suchman	Environmental Justice & Sustainable Development (seminar)
Steven Thel	Securities and Capital Markets
Mark Vecchio	Strategic International Commercial Transactions (seminar)
Wallace Wang and Sean Tang	Corporate Governance in Greater China (seminar)
Mark Yecies	Corporate Transactional Taxation (seminar)

 

Related courses in other departments at Columbia University

Department of Political Science

Pablo Pinto	Theory of International Political Economy
	Political Economy of Trade and Investment
Pablo Pinto and Erik Gartzke	Globalization

-