Legal Research Paper (750 words) – Examine a recent dispute involving a multinational corporation
Choose a legal issue that was the subject of a lecture/ reading (for example, contracts, intellectual property, negligence, or private international law), and prepare a 750 word research paper that examines its practical impact on a multinational business (for example, an international contract law lawsuit; the valuation of the intellectual property portfolio of a pharma giant; an employment law dispute over workplace discrimination).
Ensure you include discussion of the following required elements:
Your thesis: introduce and close your paper with an insightful conclusion you have reached based on your research.
Legal context: state clearly which specific legal issue you will discuss (for example, contracts, workplace discrimination, trade law, or immigration).
Business relevance: the business context in which you will discuss this issue (for example, a specific lawsuit; a decision by a judicial body such as the World Trade Organization; or a legal campaign by a civil society group such as Human Rights Watch, Global March Against Child Labor, or the World Wide Fund for Nature).
Legal analysis: which laws were alleged to have been broken? In which country was the case heard? Which court(s) ruled on the case?
Business analysis of the legal issues involved: revenues affected, costs from the legal action and business outcome.
Other business issues: for example, public relations concerns, impact on employees, community impact in the places where the company operates, and any other issues you think relevant.
Continuing challenges: what ongoing issues does your chosen company face and what potential solutions can you identify?
Example research paper topics
You can write on any of these, or propose your own topic to me for approval:
Contracts
Corporate contract law dispute. For example, Baily, A. (2021, April 10). Walmart ordered to pay $115 million for breach of contract, stealing trade secrets. https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2021/04/10/walmart-ordered-to-pay-115-million-for-breach-of-contract-stealing-trade-secrets
or Negligence
A negligence case. For example, Redden, E. (2021, March 19). Dream Derailed Leads to Lawsuit Against Berkeley: A former international student has filed suit claiming the university’s international student advising office misinformed him of a deadline to apply for authorization to work in the U.S. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/03/19/former-international-student-who-lost-dream-job-sues-berkeley-alleging-negligence
Negligence by an employer for not preventing workplace bullying: https://www.in-equilibrium.co.uk/deutsche-bank-and-helen-green/
