University College London

This course introduces students to the legal regulation of commercial relationships having strong connections with more than one legal system. Although the focus is on litigation before English courts, an international perspective is adopted. The implications of Brexit in jurisdictional and recognition rules are to be considered. The traditional English principles and rules concerning international commercial litigation form the basis of the law in many, primarily common law, jurisdictions and regained relevance in the light of Brexit. Emphasis is also be placed on the relevant principles and rules of European Union law applicable before the courts across Europe.

This course provides an introduction to the study of International Political Economy (IPE). IPE is a field of research that combines the study of politics and economics, exploring both domestic and international factors that impact preferences, behaviours, and policies relating to economic globalisation. The course will cover major topics of inquiry within IPE such as the politics and policies relating to international trade, international investment, and international finance. Students will be introduced to theoretical and empirical research analysing each topic covered. By the end of the term, you should have a firm understanding of IPE as a discipline, including ways in which the field’s insights can inform policy-making.

This course starts with an overview of mainstream and critical international relations theory which is then applied to real-world events. Students first think about how war and peace, order and disorder, prosperity and poverty are conceptualized in international relations. Using approaches from realism to post-colonial theory, the course discusses the role of the state in the formation of global politics in order to understand how globalization has in turn affected the role of states in global politics, particularly against the backdrop of populist nationalism and ever-growing global challenges. 

This interdisciplinary course examines the representation of London in a variety of cultural outputs from the Victorian to the contemporary period. In particular, it analyzes how writers and artists have expressed their perception of the city as a dark site of social tensions, mystery, crime, and detective work. Alongside representative literary texts (from Dickens and Conan Doyle to Ackroyd), the course makes room for a significant amount of visual material such as illustrations (Doré, Cruikshank), films (Hitchcock, Reed), television dramas (Ripper Street, Sherlock), and documentaries (Keiller, Ackroyd). It is also supplemented by visits to UCL Collections and other London Museums.

This course uses London to explore how contemporary cities are being theorized, experienced, and understood. Consideration is given to how cities are conceptualized in and through the context of globalization. The concept of "global cities" is to be contrasted with perspectives that emphasize the "ordinary" quality of cities, to allow students to engage analytically and critically with the complexities and diversities of urban life and experiences. A range of interdisciplinary themes within urban studies are employed to explore the diverse socio-spatial and cultural dynamics and practices both with respect to London and to students' home cities.

This course examines the history of Palestine and Israel from the 19th century until the present. Rather than studying Israeli and Palestinian history in isolation, the course explores the relationship between the two national groups and the emergence of the Israeli state alongside the prolonged statelessness of Palestinians. Some of the topics include: contrasting narratives of Palestinian and Israeli history, the constituents of identity in late Ottoman Palestine and the formation of Palestinian and Israeli nationalism, Hebrew culture and the Arab encounter with Zionism, the impact of the Mandate period, the Arab revolt of 1936-39, the 1948 War and the birth of the Palestinian refugee problem, the political disappearance of the Palestinian question in Israel’s early decades, the rebuilding of Palestinian identity and institutions, and the fate of the two state solution.