Exclusive: Assessment even contains a Donald-esque tweet
London School of Economics (LSE) masters students were this week asked to answer an exam question involving a character named “President Trumpet”, who intends to build “the biggest wall the world has ever seen.”
The Investment Treaty Law exam, sat by a number of LLM-ers on Tuesday morning, invited students to consider a commercial dispute that is referred to the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
Tricky legal issues to one side, section A of the assessment (screenshotted below) centres around the fictitious “President Trumpet of Megalomania”. Trumpet — who appears to be inspired by a major political player of a similar name — has struck a deal with a company called “MegaBricks” to build “the biggest wall the world has ever seen” along the border of Megalomania and Despondent.
Continuing, the question reveals that Trumpet — keen to put Megalomania first — wants “all construction materials to be sourced and manufactured” within his country.
However, issues arise when MegaBricks plans to outsource some of the work to another company, Brickworks, which — much to Trumpet’s dismay — is incorporated outside of Megalomania. Violating his “Buy Megalomanian” clause, MegaBricks is forced to undertake the work itself “at much greater expense.” Unhappy with the way it has been treated, MegaBricks registers a claim with the ICSID.
Upon discovering that MegaBricks is taking action against him, Trumpet tweets that MegaBricks is a “terrible company, the worst company ever, very bad for Megalomania. Sad!” Sound familiar?
LSE declined to comment.
This isn’t the first time LSE academics have seemingly taken exam inspiration from the world of politics. Last month, Legal Cheek revealed that a tort assessment included a question featuring characters “Nigel” and “Donald” crashing an aeroplane into the River Thames after consuming “several pints of imported Belgian beer”.
For all the latest commercial awareness info, and advance notification of Legal Cheek’s careers events, sign up to the Legal Cheek Hub here.