Global Corporations & International Law (LAWS90316)

Corporations appear in an increasing number of international legal domains, from trade and investment to development, human rights and environmental law.  In each of these domains, international law seeks to facilitate corporate activity or hold corporations accountable for their actions. The subject seeks to offer students the historical and theoretical foundations to understand and critically analyse the engagement between international law and the corporation. 

Students will be introduced to competing theoretical accounts of the corporation and guided in developing an understanding of the way different conceptions of the corporation shape the development of international law, and the prospects for holding corporations accountable. Students will also gain a broad understanding of how different domains of international law treat and understand the corporation. 

This subject will also offer a foundation in the history of international law and corporations, from the historical involvement of corporations in imperialism to the way corporations continue to be implicated in drivers of social and economic inequality both within and between nations today. Students will be given the tools to identify how corporations have sought to influence international law, and how international law – and states – have sought to engage with the corporation. 

Intended learning outcomes

A student who successfully completes this subject should be able to: 

• Critically analyse the facilitative and remedial roles of international law in corporate action;
• Evaluate the influence of theoretical frameworks on action in international law;
• Synthesise historical and contemporary perspectives on the corporation's role in shaping and being shaped by international law;
• Examine the treatment and impact of corporations across various domains of international law such as trade, investment, human rights and environmental law;
• Reflect critically on the ethical, political and economic implications of the evolving relationship between corporations and states in the international legal context.

Generic skills

• Ability to engage with, think and write conceptually and critically about contemporary legal problems and contemporary issues in society.
• Ability to analyse and place laws in historical context.
• Ability to understand the relationship between theory and practice.
• Application of well-developed critical thinking and problem solving abilities to legal practice and theory.
• Capacity to communicate effectively complex ideas and theories about law, orally and in writing.
• Understanding of the significance and value of knowledge to the wider community.