Master's in Business Law in a Global Context

This course explores several Western legal systems (British, Canadian, French and US): history, sources of law, legal methods, etc. It examines the problems that arise when lawyers trained in one system try to understand the concepts and practices of another system. It examines critically the justification offered for important differences between Civil Law and Common Law tradition, as well as between countries officially belonging to the same tradition.

This course focuses on commercial aspects of common law in British, Canadian and American law. Issues will include contract law and civil liability, products liability and economic torts.

This course examines the fundamental principles as well as the rules governing business organizations in the context of mergers and acquisitions. It also provides a thorough study of corporate governance in an international setting, with particular reference to the United States and Canada. Principal topics include: the concept of corporate governance; the role, duties and powers of directors, managers and shareholders; and the duties of good faith, care and diligence.

This subject covers the concepts of secured transactions and will focus principally on Anglo-American law and international conventions. It will examine the legal incidents of the mortgage, charge, pledge and lien and the legal consequences of this conceptual classification of transactions. It will also consider related topics such as set-off, flawed asset arrangements, retention of title clauses, security over intangible property, various forms of guarantees and letters of comfort, floating charges and fixed charges, priority disputes, etc. This course will also consider the bankruptcy procedure in Anglo-American law and in the international context. Furthermore, a section of the course is focused on taking security in intellectual property and on analyzing a cross-border secured transactions case study.

This course deals with the global issues in intellectual and industrial property that are current and being debated in international fora such as the TRIPS Council of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The issues that are covered include copyright, the protection of famous trademarks, patents, intellectual property and competition law, the violation of trade secrets and protection of domain names.

The main objective of this course is to explore legal issues raised by information technology, computing and networked environments. Topics include the legal sources of electronic commerce, electronic contracts, electronic publicity, privacy law, consumer law, intellectual property and dispute settlement.

This course examines in depth the regulatory system for securities. This course looks at the different structures and the international coordination to securities and market regulation The following topics will also be studied: the definition of securities and prescribed interests; offerings of securities including prospectuses and liability for misstatements and omissions; market manipulation and insider trading; the regulation of stock exchanges; the licensing of security dealers and investment advisers; and the legal relationship between brokers and their clients, etc. The course will also deal with derivative products and regulatory issues.

This course covers the law that governs international trade as embodied in the World Trade Organization Agreements (WTO). The basic rules and disciplines that underpin the multilateral trading system are examined in the light of the growing jurisprudence generated by the WTO dispute settlement mechanism. The regulation of dumping and subsidies is also addressed through the study of trade remedies. A segment of the course is devoted to regional economic integration and the cohabitation of this expanding phenomenon with the multilateral system, the emphasis being put on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

This course will focus on issues relating to international economic crimes. It covers the following topics: the international procedural regime for enforcing national criminal law such as the extradition process and Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties, money laundering and proceeds of crime, corruption, tax evasion (customs, tariffs, excise taxes, tax), competition law, fraud and the Internet, etc.