globalisation has transformed every aspect of our economic political and social lives this change can be noticed in the legal profession too what we are now witnessing is a dynamic phase with a number of trends contributing to a substantial shift in global governance in many important respects emerging powers such as india are leading the way says david b wilkins lester kissel professor of law and faculty director of the programme on the legal profession harvard law school india liberalised its economy in the 1990s opening its doors to outside investment and privatising many state functions this process he says inevitably spurred the demand for new laws to regulate this economic activity which in turn created the demand for new lawyers who could operate effectively in a new global environment given this the nature of legal work can range from addressing issues relating to international law international trade and economic laws intellectual property law taxation human rights and environmental law in fact a number of global issues of nearuniversal concern have emerged in recent decades according to dabiru sridhar patnaik director centre for postgraduate legal studies at jindal global law school haryana law can have a major role in improving the understanding of human rights securitisation of global transactions and in procuring more efficient arbitration mechanisms for commercial disputes indias strengthened participation in the institutions such as the world trade organisation and the international monetary fund is an outcome of development of international cooperation to address pressing global challenges on such issues says emily reid director centre for law ethics and globalisation at southampton law school uk there is a trend toward both international cooperation and regulation and global governance involving participation of nonstate actors in addition to the increase in specialist international regimes there has been a transformation in the influence shaping those regimes informs reid one of the striking trends concerns the increased role of developing states in shaping the agenda and in determining the content of those commitments she says online programmes university of edinburgh offers onlinedistance learning llm degrees in international commercial law and practice intellectual property law and other relevant areas of law the university of liverpool uk offers an online llm in international business law related areas new york university offers a flexible learning executive llm in tax law oxford university offers a sixmonth course on foundations of diplomacy as a premasters course for further studies in diplomacy and international relations