General Course Information
1.1 Course details
| Course code: | LLAW3287 |
| Course name: | Legal Concepts and Practical Application in Financial Transactions |
| Programme offered under: | LLB Programme |
| Semester: | Second |
| Designated research course: | Not applicable |
| Specialization: | Commercial, corporate and financial law |
| Prerequisites: | Contract Law |
| Course offered to non-law students: | No |
| Credit point value | 6 credits |
[This course is cross-listed to LLM elective. Senior year LLB students (i.e. LLB 3-4 and Double Degree 4-5) are allowed to take certain LLM courses as their law electives but subject to meet certain requirements (please see LLB course selection guidelines).]
1.2 Course description
The purpose of this course is to examine significant legal concepts and private law issues encountered in commercial finance and investment banking. A sound knowledge of these areas of law in the transactional context provides a firm foundation for legal practice in international law firms and at the Bar including skills in tackling the latest challenges thrown up by globalization and the digital economy.
This course builds on the knowledge students have acquired in the core courses of Contracts and Torts in the application in the financial markets and will provide a deeper understanding of the part that private law plays in such markets.
The course will begin with an introduction to transactional structures in the financial markets including loans, guarantees, bonds, derivatives and structured finance. The aim is to consider various concepts in contract, property and trusts which are used to allocate, manage and transfer risk in transactions. While the focus will be on English law and Hong Kong law, the course will consider civil law jurisdictions for criticism and comparison (and the practical impact on transactions). For example, taking security for bonds and loans and the enforcement of security would have different impact under different laws. The course will also consider developments in the financial markets including tokenisation of financial instruments.
Students will be well prepared for each seminar by a prior discussion of the transactional structure and a summary of the relevant issues to ensure that they benefit from the in-depth discussion of the specific issues during the seminars.
1.3 Course teachers
| Name | E-mail address | Office | Consultation | |
| Course convenor | Yvonne Siew | TBA | N/A | By email |
Learning Outcomes
2.1 Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) for this course
CLO 1 Describe and explain the transactional structures covered and the application of private law to issues that arise.
CLO 2 Describe and apply the principles of private law to the transactions and issues discussed.
CLO 3 Describe and explain the theories, doctrines, and debates pertaining to topics on private law presented in the course.
CLO 4 Engage with academic writing and discussion about legal principles and potential developments.
CLO 5 Demonstrate an awareness of the impact of private law doctrines on their broader economic and socio-cultural contexts.
2.2 LLM and JD Programme Learning Outcomes (PLOs)
Please refer to the following link:
LLM – https://course.law.hku.hk/llm-plo/
JD – https://course.law.hku.hk/jd-plo/
2.3 Programme Learning Outcomes to be achieved in this course
| PLO A | PLO B | PLO C | PLO D | PLO E | PLO F | |
| CLO 1 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 2 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| CLO 3 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| CLO 4 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| CLO 5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Assessment(s)
3.1 Assessment Summary
| Assessment task | Due date | Weighting | Feedback method* | Course learning outcomes |
| Class participation and written comments in online platforms | TBC | 40% | 5 | 1, 2, ,3 ,4 ,5 |
| Essay | TBC | 60% | 1, 2 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
| *Feedback method (to be determined by course teacher) | |
| 1 | A general course report to be disseminated through Moodle |
| 2 | Individual feedback to be disseminated by email / through Moodle |
| 3 | Individual review meeting upon appointment |
| 4 | Group review meeting |
| 5 | In-class verbal feedback |
3.2 Assessment Detail
To be advised by course convenor(s).
3.3 Grading Criteria
Please refer to the following link: https://www.law.hku.hk/_files/law_programme_grade_descriptors.pdf
Learning Activities
4.1 Learning Activity Plan
| Seminar: | 3 hours / week for 12 teaching weeks |
| Private study time: | 9.5 hours / week for 12 teaching weeks |
Remarks: the normative student study load per credit unit is 25 ± 5 hours (ie. 150 ± 30 hours for a 6-credit course), which includes all learning activities and experiences within and outside of classroom, and any assessment task and examinations and associated preparations.
4.2 Details of Learning Activities
To be advised by course convenor(s).
Learning Resources
5.1 Resources
| Reading materials: | Reading materials are posted on Moodle |
| Core reading list: | TBA |
| Recommended reading list: | TBA |
5.2 Links
Please refer to the following link: http://www.law.hku.hk/course/learning-resources/