This course will explore the legal developments of the global monetary architecture and look into the political and economic rationales that underpin the practices of the international monetary law. The course will help students acquire the analytical tools needed to understand and critically reflect on the changes in the multilateral system, notably in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis.

The focus of this course is on how relations of monetary power are legally and politically re-configured over time, and how this process of institutional design is currently reshaping the global governance of money. We will cover (1) the legal foundations of the international monetary system and the international money (i.e., global currencies, the legal design of the eurocurrencies, and the challenges posed by virtual currencies); (2) the roles and evolving responsibilities of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as well as the main political and economic challenges to the development of the Fund’s mandates; and (3) the legal forms of monetary cooperation at bilateral and regional levels (e.g., currency swaps between central banks; the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization - CMIM; the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement - CRA).