Courses | Columbia Law School

Section Description Provided by Instructor

International Business and Investment Transactions with China
L8343
Adjunct Professor: Owen D. Nee, Jr.


The purpose of the course is to introduce students from a common law background to international business and investment transactions with the People's Republic of China. The course covers all forms of commercial and investment transactions with China from international sales contracts to the formation of domestic businesses. The focus of the course is a detailed examination of the principal Chinese laws regulating such business.

Students will learn how one country, China, has moved from a State planned economic system to a system where the market mechanism plays the primary role in regulating commercial activities, while allowing a continuing role for the prevalent political forces in the country. The likely future course of economic regulation in China will be studied at the end of the term, including corporate governance reforms, stock market regulation, antitrust and bankruptcy law developments.

There are no prerequisites for this course. Knowledge of Chinese is not required, although students with Chinese language or a familiarity with China are encouraged to participate in order to enliven the debate.

In order to obtain credit, students must

- based on a list of assigned issues, write one short outline of negotiation points (two to three pages) to be used in a simulated negotiation of an investment transaction in China and present those points orally during the negotiation exercise; and

- submit an acceptable paper during the examination period on a subject to be pre-agreed with the instructor.

The final paper will count for minor writing credit only.

Please note that your attendance is required for a half day (either morning or afternoon) in March to participate in a mock investment negotiation session at which you will practice your negotiating skills. The short outlines referred to above of negotiation points are due prior to that all day session.

The textbook for the course is O. NEE, Shareholder Agreements and Joint Ventures in China (West Publishing 2009). Copies are available at the bookstore. Additional reading materials will be distributed as photocopied materials for the course and these are also available at the bookstore. All such materials should be available before January 8, 2007, the first day of class.

Should students wish to do preparatory reading, I recommend Mr. China by Tom Clissold (HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., New York, 2004) for a description of some of the problems one will learn how to avoid in this class. Copies are available on Amazon for less than $9.00. Another, less expensive source of contemporary business problems in China can be found in the daily New York Times, Business Section and students are encouraged to read their frequent articles about China.

I enjoy meeting students and will be available each Monday afternoon at the Law School for personal consultations. I can also be reached by email at any time at onee@jonesday.com.


Owen D. Nee, Jr.