Using TLB to Teach International Business Transactions

As the fall semester gets underway, we are updating our posts on using resources on TLB to teach various classes. This post discusses International Business Transactions (IBT).

Although TLB focuses on litigation and IBT focuses on transactions, there is a great deal of overlap. The most obvious examples are contractual clauses that plan for dispute resolution, like forum selection clauses, arbitration clauses, and choice of law clauses. But TLB has also run posts on other issues relevant to international transactions, including extraterritoriality, corruption, human rights, the CISG, sanctions, antitrust, expropriation, and sovereign debt.

Primers and Topic Pages

TLB has many “primers” on topics relevant to IBT, including the act of state doctrine, choice of law clauses, extraterritoriality, foreign judgments, forum selection clauses, and human rights litigation. These primers are a good way to bring students up to speed quickly on a topic. Each primer links to more in-depth posts and resources.

In addition to these primers, TLB’s topic pages include links to important primary materials (like cases, statutes, and treaties) as well as significant works of scholarship. The topic pages also collect recent posts in reverse chronological order, providing opportunities to build students’ awareness of current developments and spark class discussion.

A Selection of Relevant Posts

Below are some suggestions of relevant posts dealing with areas often covered in IBT. The order generally follows the organization of Vagts, Dodge, Buxbaum & Koh, Transnational Business Problems (7th ed. 2014). But professors can easily rearrange the topics if they are using other books or their own materials.

International Dispute Resolution

Extraterritoriality

Corruption

Business and Human Rights

Sale of Goods

Intellectual Property

Sanctions

Antitrust

Securities

Expropriation

Sovereign Debt