Commercial Law in Asia (LAWS70230)

The emergence of Asia as an economic powerhouse is driving enormous interest in doing business in the region. This subject provides students with an opportunity to examine commercial law in an Asian context. Although parallels can be drawn between Asian jurisdictions in terms of their economic and legal development, their commercial law systems are too diverse to be treated uniformly. Instead, the principal objective of this course is to provide a focused analysis of selected legal and practical issues from comparative and economic perspectives.

In order to facilitate comparative analysis both across and within the common law and civil law traditions, this subject will focus on commercial law in the four jurisdictions of China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. Basic economic principles will be introduced and utilized to evaluate the efficacy of the respective legal rules. Covered topics will include contract, business associations, corporate finance, and taxation. The subject will be of interest to those interested in doing business in Asia.

Principal topics include:

• contract
• business associations (including corporate governance)
• corporate finance
• taxation