General Course Information
1.1 Course details
| Course code: | LLAW6321 / JDOC6321 |
| Course name: | International Commercial Litigation |
| Programme offered under: | LLM Programme / JD Programme |
| Semester: | June |
| Prerequisites / Co-requisites: | No |
| Credit point value: | 9 credit / 6 credits |
1.2 Course description
International commercial disputes dealt with by national courts involve various substantive, procedural and conflict-of-laws issues. This course aims to present a full picture of how international commercial disputes are resolved in the path of the courts’ decision-making. The court seized with a commercial dispute will first decide whether the court has jurisdiction to hear the case. In cases where there is a parallel proceeding in a foreign country, the court may consider whether to issue an anti-suit injunction or stay the proceedings. Once the jurisdictional issues are cleared, the court will proceed to the merit of the case. The court will assess the parties’ contractual claims and defences under the applicable law to the contract.
This course will tackle these issues arising from different and distinct types of international commercial contracts.
This course consists of two parts.
Part one covers common issues to different types of contractual disputes such as:
- Principle of party autonomy
- how to deal with jurisdictional conflicts: anti-suit injunctions and stay of the proceedings (including recent anti-anti-suit injunctions regarding patent infringement)
- general clauses in international commercial contracts (boilerplates)
Part two tackles more contract-specific issues in international sales contracts, shipping and insurance contracts, licence agreements, EPC contracts, shipbuilding contracts, franchise agreements, commercial agency contracts, financial contracts and shareholders agreements such as:
- Grounds to establish/contest the court’s jurisdiction
- Principles to determine the applicable law of the contract
- Typical claims and defences under specific contracts
In Part Two, the above-mentioned issues will be addressed under specific contractual contexts. For example, in the lecture covering international sales of goods will cover which court (habitual residence of the seller or buyer, or place of performance) shall have jurisdiction; how to determine appliable law in a sales contract; typical claims and defences under the CISG.
The topics will be taught with an extensive case law of the UK, Europe and the courts in the Asia Pacific region.
1.3 Course teachers
| Name | E-mail address | Office | Consultation | |
| Course convenor | Min Kyung Kim | Minki0821@gmail.com | N/A | By email |
Learning Outcomes
2.1 Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) for this course
CLO 1 Have a fundamental understanding of the law and practice of international commercial litigation.
CLO 2 Ability to identify and critically analyse substantive and conflict-of-laws issues in the context of the specific type of contractual disputes.
CLO 3 Ability to propose better solutions to the above-mentioned issues.
CLO 4 Apply acquired skills and knowledge in private practice or other commercial settings.
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 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Assessment(s)
3.1 Assessment Summary
| Assessment task | Due date | Weighting | Feedback method* | Course learning outcomes |
| Class participation | TBC | 10% | 4, 5 | 1, 2, 3, 4 |
| Team/self presentation | TBC | 30% | 2, 3 | 1, 2, 3, 4 |
| Research essay | TBC | 60% | 2, 3 | 1, 2, 3, 4 |
| *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/