Prof Trevor Hartley NAB 6.02

Dr Jacco Bomhoff NAB 6.29

This course is available on the Master of Laws and Master of Laws (extended part-time study). This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course is capped at 30 students. Students must apply through Graduate Course Choice on LSEforYou.

Knowledge of conflict of laws (private international law) would be useful but is not essential.

The following topics will be studied from the point of view of European Union law, English (common and statute) law, Canadian law and US law: 1) Principles and theories of choice of law; 2) Jurisdiction in tort actions; 3) Choice of law for torts: general principles; 4) Special topics (jurisdiction and choice of law) – a) Product liability; b) Defamation; c) Multinationals and the third world; 5) US Alien Tort Claims Act: jurisdiction and applicable law; 6) The problem of extraterritoriality with special reference to American antitrust law and EU competition law.

20 hours of seminars in the MT. 2 hours of seminars in the ST.

All students are expected to produce one 2,000 word formative essay during the course.

Core textbook: Trevor C Hartley, International Commercial Litigation (Cambridge University Press, 2009) (Chapters 22 and 23, parts of Chapters 11 and 12, and Chapters 32-35) Further reading: Cheshire, North and Fawcett, Private International Law (14th edn, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2008, by James Fawcett and Janeen Carruthers); Dicey, Morris & Collins, The Conflict of Laws (Sweet and Maxwell, London, 15th edn, 2012 by Sir Lawrence Collins with specialist editors); Dickinson (Andrew), The Rome II Regulation (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2010); Lowenfeld (Andreas F), Conflict of Laws: Federal, State and International Perspectives (LexisNexis, Newark, NJ; San Francisco, CA, 2nd edn, 2002); Symeonides (Symeon C), Perdue (Wendy Collins) and von Mehren (Arthur T), Conflict of Laws: American, Comparative, International (West, St Paul, Minn., 1998).

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours) in the main exam period.