Course Details in 2025/26 Session

Module Title	LH Contemporary Issues in International Law and Globalisation
School	Birmingham Law School
Department	Law
Module Code	08 37088
Module Lead	TBC
Level	Honours Level
Credits	20
Semester	Semester 1
Pre-requisites
Co-requisites
Restrictions	None
Contact Hours	Lecture-30 hours Seminar-6 hours Guided independent study-164 hours Total: 200 hours
Exclusions
Description	This module is designed to encourage students to reflect on recent developments and study key conundrums in the field of public international law and globalisation such as gender and development, the persistence of widespread poverty migration of environmentally displaced persons, humanitarian crises, global trade, banking and finance, health and medicine, and the governance of emergent technologies and free and Open Source Software Licensing. Issues of this kind challenge the international and transnational legal and political systems to devise solutions and adjust and implement these solutions across vastly different national, regional and local contexts. Exploring in depth the contours and challenges of international law and globalisation, students on this module will engage with theories of law, the intersect between public and private law, theories of regulation, gender and development, health, international finance , global justice and political economy in order to understand, question and critique the capacity of the ‘international community’ to address urgent and emerging challenges of global governance at the level of both states and non-state actors and the role of international law therein.
Learning Outcomes	By the end of the module students should be able to: Explain and assess the relationship and intersect between different specialised branches of international law; Demonstrate an advanced ability to identify and explicate the various successes, shortcomings and challenges facing contemporary international law, including migration, global health, global trade, banking and global finance; Show a deeper understanding of the impact that factors like politics, migration, gender, human rights, technology, and non-state private systems has on the application and development of legal approaches to these challenges; Show an advanced understanding of the legal mechanisms and regulatory tools by which the international community addresses challenges in international law and globalisation; Critically engage, at an advanced undergraduate level, with a range of political, philosophical and legal debates and scholarships on international and transnational regulation, globalisation and the international legal system.
Assessment	37088-01 : Essay : Coursework (100%)
Assessment Methods & Exceptions	Assessment: One 3500 words essay (100%) Reassessment: Resit failed component(s)
Other
Reading List