International Economic Law and Development

• Credit value: 15 credits at Level 6
• Coordinator and lecturer: Professor Fiona Macmillan
• Assessment: a 4000-word research essay

This module provides an introduction to the institutions and actors of international economic law. It focuses on the international law of development, examining the competing models of development that operate under the auspices of the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization. This material will be considered in the theoretical context of the relationship between law and political economy.

Indicative module syllabus

• Introduction to the system of international economic law
• Political economy and the law
• Development and de-colonisation
• Development in the United Nations framework
• The World Bank
• The International Monetary Fund
• The World Trade Organization
• Non-state actors
• The political economy of development law
• Development as transnational law?

By the end of this module, you will:

• have knowledge of the international economic law system and the place of international development law within that system
• be able to critically analyse the relationship between international economic law and concepts of political economy
• be able to locate the practical problems of international development within a critical legal and theoretical framework
• be able to conduct research in primary international legal materials
• have the capacity to work independently.