LL.M. in International Business Law

Back to top

Back to top

The Online LL.M. in International Business Law curriculum provides advanced education in international business law to students with a Juris Doctor or equivalent law degree from outside the United States. Students may choose 24 credit hours from the credit hours below listed courses. Upon completing the program, students will have specialized knowledge and practical legal skills in international business law.

Note:  LL.M. students may substitute 3 credit hours with a College of Law JD or Directed Legal Research course with permission of Faculty Director.

 

Introduction to Legal Studies (2 credits): 

This course is a general introduction to the nature and structure of national, international, and transnational legal systems. It introduces the students to the common law and civil law legal systems as well as the international and transnational organizations and structures of international and transnational business law such as the European Union, the World Trade Organization, and UNCITRAL.

 

Sources of International Law (2 credits):

This course introduces students to the various resources needed to identify and research domestic and international law related to international business transactions. Students will learn the core skills of finding and analyzing the application of domestic, foreign, and international law for use in a variety of transactional settings. For domestic law, students will utilize online resources to locate primary and secondary sources of federal and state law, e.g., constitutions, statutes, regulations, case law, legal encyclopedias, and treatises.  For international law, students will become familiar with key resources for locating and reviewing: (i) bilateral and multinational treaties related to international business; (ii) European Union directives and decisions and other foreign legal sources; and (iii) decisions of international and transnational adjudicatory organizations.

 

Comparative Corporate Law (3 credits):

This course initiates students into the differences between corporate law in civil law countries and corporate law in the Anglo-American world. Students gain an understanding of the different policy challenges legislators are facing stemming mainly from the size of the firms, their ownership structure and the position of labor within business organizations. The effects of regulatory competition in the field of corporate law inside the EU and the US are also analyzed, enabling students to understand the extent to which legal convergence has been spurred by such competition. Major aspects of corporate law that will be compared include: the corporate formation process, capital requirements and distributions, duties and liabilities of management, the powers of the general meeting vis-à-vis the powers of the management bodies (including principles of decision-making), minority shareholders’ protection, creditor protection (with emphasis on the concept of piercing the corporate veil), and labor rights.

 

European Union Business and Competition Law (3 credits):

This course provides an introduction to European Union (EU) Law. Students will learn the unique structure of the EU and the Common Market, including how directives are made and implemented. The course will then focus on a few specific areas of law including free movement of goods, employment, taxation, and competition law.

 

International Payment Systems (2 credits):

This course examines the legal frameworks that govern some of the key international payment systems: Letters of Credit, wire transfers, international netting, and the SWIFT system. The main themes will include risks associated with fraudulent transactions and the allocation of credit risk throughout the payment systems.

 

International Sales & Other Business Transactions (3 credits):

This course focuses on the legal aspects of commercial activity that takes place in two or more countries. It examines the sale of goods and services across national boundaries, licensing of intellectual property, foreign investment, and the core principles of international taxation and antitrust law.

 

Combatting International Corruption (2 credits):

This course introduces students to some of the main elements of the domestic and international legal frameworks intended to combat corruption, including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and UN Convention Against Corruption. It is further intended to spark discussion about how successful various aspects of this framework have been, how they might be improved, and how individuals and companies can best operate within it. It also seeks to provoke broader discussion about the nature of corruption, and the kinds of anti-corruption objectives that make sense both from a governmental perspective and from the perspective of companies and individuals that do business internationally. 

 

International Sanctions Regimes (2 credits):

This course provides an overview of the international sanctions regimes. It explores the processes by which the UN and other multilateral and unilateral sanctions are imposed and how sanctions impact the way business is conducted. A few country-specific sanctions provisions will be explored.

 

International Business, Human Rights, and Corporate Responsibility (3 credits):

An emerging issue in international business has involved the appropriate role and responsibilities of multinational corporations concerning human rights. We will examine the United Nations (UN) and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) guidelines for business and human rights as well as national regulation on this topic and potential litigation risks.

 

International Commercial and Investment Arbitration (3 credits):

This course provides background on the history and mechanics of international arbitration, drawing on a series of readings from the class textbook as well as practical materials selected from actual arbitrations.  The course is designed to give a basic understanding of the international arbitration process.  Topics discussed in the class include the drafting of arbitration clauses, an overview of arbitral institutions and sets of rules that govern the arbitration, the phases of the arbitration process (from the filing of the notice of arbitration to the constitution of the arbitral tribunal, procedural mechanisms such as possible bifucation, the written pleadings, use of factual and expert witnesses, oral hearings, the rendering of the arbitral award, and post-award actions such as challenges to and enforcement of the award). The course also touches on investor-state arbitration brought under investment treaties and free trade agreements.

 

International Trade & Investment (3 credits):

This survey course introduces students to the regulation of cross-border trade and investment from an international business perspective, focusing on the different legal regimes at the global, regional and national level that impact decisions by companies to trade and invest overseas.  It includes an introduction to the key international multilateral economic organizations, such as the World Trade Organization, International Monetary Fund, World Bank and regional multilateral development banks. 

 

International Finance: Capital Markets (2 credits):

This course examines the laws and institutions governing global capital markets, primarily global equity and Eurobonds. The course will examine the applicability of US Securities regulation abroad (both relating to non-US companies raising capital in the US and US companies raising capital abroad). The major markets and exchanges will be examined including London, Europe, and Hong Kong. The course will also examine attempts at and challenges to international harmonization. In addition to primary capital market transactions, the course will also consider cross border public merger and takeover regulations and practices.

 

International Finance: Banking & Structured Finance (2 credits):

This course examines the structure, operations, and interconnections of international banking systems and financial institutions, with particular emphasis on cross-border capital flows, regulatory frameworks, and risk management in global markets. Students will analyze contemporary challenges in international finance, including cross-border credit transactions, financial crisis prevention and resolution, the role of central banks, and the impact of emerging technologies on global banking. Through case studies and practical applications, students will develop an understanding of how international financial institutions shape economic policies, influence market behavior, and navigate complex regulatory environments across different jurisdictions.

 

International Indigenous Peoples Law (3 credits):           

Many international business endeavors involve interactions with indigenous peoples throughout the world. This course traces the development of international law rules and expectations relating to the rights of indigenous peoples from the early 20th Century through the present. The course will focus on modern international institutions and instruments including the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Race Discrimination. Materials examined include major treaties and the decisions of international bodies. Students should finish the course with sufficient understanding of the international system and major international initiatives relating to the rights of indigenous peoples to plan business operations while respecting the rights of indigenous peoples.

 

Back to top

Evelyn Aswad

Professor Aswad teaches International Business, Corporate Responsibility, and Human Rights. 

Evelyn Aswad is a Professor of Law and the Herman G. Kaiser Chair in International Law.  She is also the Director of the Center for International Business and Human Rights.   Her scholarship focuses on the intersection of international human rights law, technology, corporate responsibility standards, and freedom of expression.  She is a recipient of the David Ross Boyd Professorship, which is one of the university’s highest honors.                                                                                

Professor Aswad is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Law Institute. Professor Aswad serves on the Advisory Committee on International Law to the U.S. Department of State’s Office of the Legal Adviser. From 2013-2017, she served as the U.S. Substitute Member to the Council of Europe’s Commission for Democracy Through Law (better known as the Venice Commission).  From 2015-2020, she was a member of the U.S. Department of State’s Stakeholder Advisory Board to the Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy.  She was also nominated in 2021 by the U.S. Government to be the U.S. candidate for the International Law Commission.

Prior to joining the College of Law, Professor Aswad served for about 14 years as an attorney in the Legal Bureau at the U.S. Department of State, most recently as the Director of the Office of Human Rights and Refugees. At the U.S. State Department, she advised senior officials on a wide range of international human rights law matters, including Internet freedom, the assessment of foreign laws and practices with respect to human rights obligations, issues at the intersection of international business and human rights, U.S. ratification of human rights treaties, human rights litigation in U.S. courts, issues involving mass atrocities and accountability, and matters arising in multilateral fora, such as U.S. participation at the United Nation’s (UN) Human Rights Council and its Universal Periodic Review process. 

She served as legal adviser for U.S. delegations in a variety of multilateral settings, including the UN Commission on the Status of Women, the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly, the UN Human Rights Council, the Organization of American States, the OSCE Annual Human Dimension Implementation meeting, and the delegation presenting the U.S. Periodic Report to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination as well as the delegation presenting the first US Universal Periodic Review report to the UN.  She received superior honor awards for advancing international human rights through bilateral and multilateral diplomacy.                                                      

In a previous legal position at the State Department, she worked on nuclear non-proliferation matters providing legal advice on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), various regional nuclear weapon free zone treaties, and nuclear safeguards agreements with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), including serving as legal adviser for U.S. delegations at IAEA and NPT conferences.   

She taught international human rights law and multilateral negotiations to U.S. diplomats at the Department’s Foreign Service Institute.  In addition, she taught international courses as an adjunct professor at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service as well as its Law Center.  Prior to joining the State Department, she worked at the Washington, D.C. law firm of Arnold & Porter and clerked for the Honorable Arthur J. Gajarsa at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C.

 

 

Jason Biros

Professor Biros teaches Introduction to Legal Studies and European Union Business and Competition Law. He serves as an attorney in the United States Department of State’s Office of the Legal Adviser, with a focus on regional security matters related to European affairs and NATO.  Prior to this he was Deputy Head of Legal Affairs at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna and Counsel in the Office of Legal Affairs at INTERPOL.

From 2015 to 2018, he served as Legal Adviser to the United States Mission to the European Union in Brussels, Belgium.  In this position he actively advised on international, U.S., and EU law relating to all aspects of EU-U.S. relations including in particular in the fields of national security and intelligence law, law enforcement cooperation, data protection and cross-border data transfers, political-military cooperation, sanctions, Brexit, state aid/competition law, trade, and treaty law.

His previous work with the State Department includes serving as primary legal counsel to the Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research and providing advice regarding U.S. and international law on a broad range of intelligence matters, including intelligence collection and analysis and intelligence sharing. He further advised on various transnational law enforcement matters, including extradition, mutual legal assistance, and law enforcement cooperation between the United States and various European and Asian countries. He has also served in the Department’s legal offices for management and employment, handling broad portfolios regarding counterintelligence, cybersecurity, and litigation matters.

Prior to joining the Office of the Legal Adviser, he worked in private practice in Washington and was a law clerk at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.  He holds a J.D. from Columbia Law School/European University Institute, an M.Sc. in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and an A.B. in Politics from Princeton University.

 

 

Lisa Grosh

Professor Grosh teaches International Commercial and Investment Arbitration.  She has devoted her entire career to the peaceful resolution of disputes and is a member of the Senior Executive Service of the federal government and is the Assistant Legal Adviser for International Claims and Investment Disputes in the United States Department of State. In this capacity she oversees the United States’ handling of international claims and investment disputes against foreign governments and the defense of claims against the United States before international arbitration tribunals. She leads the representation of U.S. interests before tribunals under the NAFTA Chapter 11 tribunals, CAFTA-DR Chapter 10 tribunals and other international agreements, and has defended the United States in claims by Canadian companies such as Glamis Gold, Apotex Corp., Trans Canada, and TC Energy under the NAFTA and the US Mexico Canada Agreement.  In cases not involving the United States as a disputing party, she and her team meet regularly with U.S. companies and their counsel to discuss their objectives in pursuing investor-State arbitration against other States, and the wide variety of circumstances in which these claims arise.

Ms. Grosh is also lead counsel for the United States before the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal. She has led teams in defending the United States in billions of dollars in treaty and contract claims before the Tribunal, presented numerous claims on behalf of U.S. citizens and small businesses against Iran, and provided guidance to large corporations, such as McKesson Corp., Avco Corp., and Lockheed, and their counsel, as they pursued their contract and expropriation claims against Iran before the Tribunal. Ms. Grosh is also one of the leads in defending the United States in the Certain Assets case brought by Iran before the International Court of Justice under the 1957 Treaty of Amity, in which Iran is challenging measures of the executive branch, Congress and the U.S. courts to assist U.S. victims in obtaining compensation from state sponsors of terrorism.

Ms. Grosh has worked on a variety of other international claims matters throughout her career. She represented the United States before the UN Compensation Commission and has played a lead role in the negotiation and U.S. implementation of various major claim settlement agreements involving the United States. This has included settlements of claims before the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal, a 2008 settlement with Libya for $1.5 billion, a 2010 settlement with Iraq for $400 million, and a 2014 settlement with France for $60 million.

Ms. Grosh has received numerous awards inside and outside the State Department. In 2011 and 2017, she received the Presidential Rank Award of Meritorious Executive, and in 2024 received the Presidential Rank Award of Distinguished Executive. In 2018, she received the American Bar Association’s Mayre Rasmussen Award, given to individuals who have achieved professional excellence in international law and advanced opportunities for women in international law. Following the dismissal of the multi-billion dollar claims by Apotex against the United States under NAFTA Chapter 11, the Food and Drug Administration awarded Ms. Grosh and her team the Commissioner’s Special Citation.

Ms. Grosh earned her J.D. from the National Law Center at George Washington University, and received a B.A. in French from Millersville University. She is also a docent at the National Gallery of Art and passionate about spending time outdoors.

 

 

Tom Heinemann

Professor Heinemann teaches Combatting International Corruption. He has years of experience handling sensitive international law enforcement issues in cases of direct interest to U.S. and foreign companies operating internationally. Since 2012, he has practiced law in the U.S. Department of State’s legal office that handles international law enforcement and intelligence issues, including as the office’s Assistant Legal Adviser and a member of the Senior Executive Service from 2012 to 2020. In that capacity, he supervised a team of lawyers and paralegals managing the Department’s extradition practice and providing legal advice on a number of international legal issues including corruption, terrorism, drug trafficking, and trafficking in persons. He was also part of the U.S. delegation that negotiated the UN Convention Against Corruption, which plays a central role in the international legal framework governing corruption issues affecting international business. Prior to joining the international law enforcement and intelligence office, he worked in several of the State Department’s other legal offices, including those focused on sanctions and terrorist financing as well as political-military affairs. Prior to joining the U.S. State Department, he worked as an associate in the Washington, DC office of Arnold & Porter, specializing in legislative issues, campaign finance compliance, and lobbying law.

 

 

 

Steven Hill

Professor Hill teaches International Sanctions Regimes, International Payment Systems, and International Sales & Other Business Transactions.  He was appointed Executive Secretary of the International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law (IIJ) in November 2023.  Prior to taking up his duties at the IIJ, he served as the Director for Global Criminal Justice on the National Security Council staff at the White House in 2021 and 2022.  In March 2023, he was elected Vice President of the American Society of International Law.

From 2014 to 2020, Steve served as the chief legal counsel to NATO Secretaries General Jens Stoltenberg and Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Prior to joining NATO, Steve was Counselor for Legal Affairs at the United States Mission to the United Nations under Ambassadors Susan Rice and Samantha Power. In this role, he represented the United States in the Security Council and General Assembly and also served on the supervisory boards of several international courts.

From 2008 to 2010, he led the legal unit at the International Civilian Office / European Union Special Representative in Kosovo. Steve began his international law career in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State, which he joined in 2001. He graduated from Yale Law School and Harvard College and is a member of the New York Bar.

In 2021, Steve received the American Bar Association International Law Section’s Award for Best Lawyer in a Government and International Organization. He is a fellow in the Institute of Security and Global Affairs at the University of Leiden and has taught international law courses at the University of Leuven, Vanderbilt University Law School, and the University of Oklahoma College of Law.

 

 

Jason Hubbert

Professor Hubbert teaches Sources of International Law.  He is a member of the Oklahoma Bar. He is an Adjunct Professor of Law teaching in the M.L.S. in International Business Law program and is a Partner at Shanor & Franklin, LLC. His practice focuses on real property, with expertise in oil and gas title and carbon sequestration law and experience in real property transactions, oil and gas transactions, mining law, probate, and quiet title.

He graduated with honors from the University of Oklahoma College of Law in 2016. While there, he served as Articles Editor for the Oklahoma Law Review and received the Outstanding Case Note Award for his note on the Oklahoma Marketable Record Title Act. He also completed a one-semester externship in the U.S. State Department’s Office of the Assistant Legal Adviser for Private International Law where his work consisted of the strategic analysis of the drafting papers of various treaties, drafting memoranda on the legal and political impediments to the ratification of certain treaties and the feasibility of various projects proposed by intergovernmental organizations.

Prior to attending law school, he was a staff member and adjunct professor at Southern Nazarene University. He holds advanced degrees in Christian theology and Hebrew Bible, where his primary research areas included hermeneutics and the Deuteronomic History. He is an ordained minister in the Church of the Nazarene.

 

 

Karen Kizer

Professor Kiser teaches Sources of International Law and International Trade & Investment.  She is an Attorney-Adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser of the Department of State, where she has served for almost two decades in positions leading and providing legal advice to U.S. delegations in a variety of multilateral negotiations.  Most recently, she represented the United States at the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH), and the International Institute for the Unification of Private International Law (UNIDROIT) in negotiations on a variety of international commercial matters, including international arbitration, and other forms of dispute settlement.

She also has extensive substantive expertise in trade and investment.  She currently provides legal advice on environmental matters related to international trade and for over a decade provided legal advice on the negotiation and implementation of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and disputes related to BITs and investment chapters of free trade agreements.  She also has experience providing legal advice on a variety of international policy matters related to national security, including with the review of transactions by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and negotiations at the World Health Organization related to U.S. global health security goals, such as pandemic preparedness, response and prevention.  Her expertise in dispute settlement includes participation in cases before the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal and ad hoc international tribunals under various international investment agreements. 

She has served as an Adjunct Professor at the Washington School of Law at American University in Washington, D.C. Before joining the State Department in 2006, Ms. Kizer worked as an attorney at Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C., where she specialized in international dispute resolution and litigation. She also clerked for Judge Jane R. Roth on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Before becoming an attorney, she worked as an analyst in the International Affairs Division of the Office of Management and Budget, where her duties included analyzing foreign aid and advising on international trade policy. She has a J.D. from the University of Chicago, an M.A. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, and a B.A. from the University of Arizona.

 

 

Brian McCall

Professor McCall teaches International Finance: Capital Markets and Comparative Corporate Law. After completing his undergraduate and masters degrees, Professor McCall taught English in a private high school for two years before commencing his law degree. He received honors for obtaining the highest grades over the three-year law degree and for his specific work in Corporations, Torts, and Wills and Future Interests. During his third year of law school, Professor McCall taught foreign lawyers studying for their LL.M. a course in legal writing and research. He also served as a teaching assistant for a course on Law and Philosophy taught in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania.

After obtaining his law degree, Professor McCall joined the international law firm of Dechert LLP where he focused on cross-border mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance transactions. From 1999 to 2006 he practiced in the firm's London office to focus exclusively on cross-border transactions. In 2004 he was elected a partner of the firm. Some of the clients he advised included Citigroup, JP Morgan, The London Stock Exchange, Comcast Corporation, Tate & Lyle PLC and Rabobank. He worked on many groundbreaking transactions including one of the first public to private transactions in Germany and the first US company conducting a Regulation S offering on the London Stock Exchange's AIM Market.

Professor McCall has been a speaker at several conferences on consumer finance, corporate governance, legal philosophy, international securities offerings and private equity law. He has authored several books and articles on corporate governance law, commercial law, and legal philosophy.

He joined the OU College of Law in 2006 and was awarded tenure in 2012. In 2013 he was selected to hold the Orpha and Maurice Merrill Endowed Professorship of Law. He was invited to be a Visiting Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School, where he taught Business Associations and a seminar on Law, Business, Society, and Catholicism in 2014. 

 

 

Chris Odinet

Professor Odinet teaches International Finance: Banking & Structured Finance. He is a professor of law at the Texas A&M University School of Law. He was previously on the faculty at the University of Iowa College of Law, the University of Oklahoma College of Law and the Southern University Law Center. Professor Odinet teaches courses in international banking and finance, consumer finance, and real estate transactions. His research specializes in commercial and consumer finance, with an emphasis on mortgage lending and financial technology (fintech). His book titled Foreclosed: Mortgage Servicing and the Hidden Architecture of Homeownership in America was published by Cambridge University Press in 2019 and was featured on NPR’s Planet Money podcast. His work has also appeared in leading American law reviews, such as the Virginia Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the North Carolina Law Review, and the Washington University Law Review. In addition to his faculty role, Professor Odinet has been active in numerous organizations. He has chaired both the Commercial and Consumer Law Section and the Real Estate Transactions Section of the Association of American Law Schools. Odinet currently serves as co-editor of the Annual Survey of Consumer Finance Law, which appears in the American Bar Association's The Business Lawyer publication. In law reform circles, Professor Odinet served as a commissioner with the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws and is an elected member of the American Law Institute.

 

Back to top