Curriculum Guide · Courses

Professor Katrin Kuhlmann

LL.M Seminar 959 (cross-listed) | 2 credit hours

The subject of the seminar is the relationship between trade and development. There are two objectives for the seminar. The first is to deepen understanding of the policy bases for the global trading system as it is today and might be into the future. The seminar will do this from the perspective of the relationship between trade and development. The second objective is to critically investigate a current trend in trade and development studies that reaches beyond a purely economic understanding and addresses the link between trade and broader questions of human rights, environmental protections and, indeed, security and democratic reforms within and between nations. The purpose of this exploration is to equip seminar members to integrate trade law and policy within a broader perspective on development than that presented by economic analysis, in the hope of integrating an understanding of the global trading system with current expectations of its role in development.

The seminar is a cooperative exploration of the policies behind trade agreements and trade negotiations. The required and recommended readings extend well beyond trade, into law, economics, history and politics. Seminar members are encouraged to bring to the discussion resources and points of view beyond those recommended. Towards the end of the course, seminar members will be offered the opportunity of engaging in a current topic concerning trade and development with some of the leading practitioners and policy makers drawn from the wider Washington, D.C. community.

The seminar will take place in three phases. In Phase I the seminar will explore the expectations that trade holds for development, evaluating what is meant by the concept of development itself. Phase II will explore several areas of development-related literature, using examples drawn from trade negotiations past and present to underline the trade and development nexus. In Phase III, seminar members will apply this understanding –in conjunction with their own research – in analyzing the relationship between trade and development in specific, concrete situations. This will include a brief presentation by each seminar member, as part of a larger panel, before the seminar and an invited trade expert who will respond to the panel discussion. This phase will lay the groundwork for the final paper as well as offer an opportunity for seminar members to engage with key practitioners with expertise in the chosen subjects.