JJUA55094U Public International Law II: Advanced Inquiries - NOTE: Cancelled in the spring semester 2016
This course complements the basic instruction offered in Public International Law I: Fundamental questions:
Here we explore in greater depth a number of more complex areas
of general international law. It is therefore aimed at those who
have already had some formal instruction in the discipline and who
wish to acquire a more solid substantive and methodological
foundation in the field. It would benefit students who in their
master’s degree have chosen other, more specialised fields of
instruction in international law, or those who contemplate further
post-graduate research or professional engagements in the
discipline. The course is structured in four parts, beginning with
those areas where public international law arguably is strongest
and most firmly institutionalised, followed by an exploration of
those regimes currently undergoing significant normative or
institutional change. The third part examines the methodological
challenges that have arisen in recent years and having studied an
overview of critical and alternative theoretical visions, we will
explore in the final part the continued practical relevance of the
discipline and how research can contribute to keeping it that way.
Part I: Substantive Consolidation: Effective International
Regimes
Week 1: The Law of the Sea
Session 1: Exemplary Character of the Law of the Sea
Session 2: Law of the Sea continued; Air and Space Law
Week 2: International Economic Law
Session 3: Trade & Investment: Theory and Legal Regulation
Session 4: The Institutional Alphabet Soup (IMF, WB, MIGA, GATT,
WTO)
Week 3: International Environmental Law
Session 5: Fisheries, Pollution, Ozone, Climate Change, Nuclear
Safety Session 6: Compliance and Enforcement
Week 4: International Adjudication
Session 7: International Court of Justice
Session 8: Multiplication of International Tribunals
Part II: Substantive Challenges: Changing Regimes
Week 5: International Law in Domestic Settings
Session 9: Economic Issues: Sanctions, Debt Collection
Session 10: Human Rights Issues: Torture, CSR, Refugees
Week 6:Regulation of Violence
Session 11: ius ad bellum: Collective Security and its Discontents
Session 12: ius in bello: Targeting, Torture, Renditions
Week 7: Conditioning Sovereignty
Session 13: Territorial Integrity, Self-Preservation &
Interventions
Session 14: Self-Determination as a Legal Concept
Week 8: Changing Systemic Dynamics
Session 15: Fragmentation
Session 16: Constitutionalisation
Week 9: International Criminal Law: Ending Impunity or
Imperialism?
Session 17: Development and Structure of the Regime
Session 18: Legal and Political Contention
Part III: Methodological Challenges
Week 10: Contested Histories
Session 19: Re-Interpreting Westphalia
Session 20: Colonial Legacies, Universality and Missing Voices
Week 11: Alternative Theoretical Visions
Session 21: Third World Approaches to IL, Critical Legal Studies,
Feminist and related Critiques
Session 22: Economic, Sociological, Anthropological Approaches
Part IV: Relevance and Further Research
Week 12: Disciplinary Direction: Sophistry or
Tribalism?
Session 23: Identifying Legal Questions that matter for further
research
Session 24: Idealism and Despair.
At the completion of the course, students will obtain the following Knowledge and have:
- Learnt the competing theoretical perspectives within the
discipline of international law, such as critical legal studies,
economic theories of international law, third world
approaches to international law, etc.
- Understand the considerable differences in substantial
complexities between different sub-fields of international law,
from highly consolidated fields such as the law of the sea to
relatively primitive areas such as the regulation of violence
- Understand the simultaneous but countervailing pressures for
fragmentation and consolidation of the international legal order
- Comprehend the driving factors for the multiplication
of international dispute resolution fora
- Understand the economic and political factors that account for
the greater sophistication and institutionalisation of some
areas of international law (trade, environment,
communications, human rights) rather than others (humanitarian
law, use of force, aid)
- Understand the scholarly debate about the changing nature and/or integrity of some parts of international law (prohibition of torture, preemptive violence, global administrative law).
Students will acquire the following Skills and be able to:
- Identify the main proponents of major theoretical debates
within the discipline
- Identify the main economic and political factors that
drive substantial and methodological innovations in the discipline
- Identify the main contemporary challenges to the normative
integrity of the discipline
- Analyse the effectiveness of scholarly discourse to produce
legal responses to concrete contemporary problems
- Assess the continued relevance of international law as the language of international relations.
The course will therefore equip students with the following Competencies in order to:
- Critically evaluate competing theoretical
approaches to international law
- Evaluate alternative historical narratives fo the origin of
international law, especially with respect to revisionist
propositions from a critical, feminist, third world, or
economic angle
- Evaluate institutional change in light of its effectiveness
towards the management of global regulatory challenges,
especially with respect to UN reform, the proliferation of
international organisations and tribunals, climate change, etc.
The textbook used in the introductory part continues to be used,
that is:
Malcolm Shaw, International Law, 7th ed., Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Other readings will be distributed and made available via Absalon,
with a combined workload of ca. 700 pages, including the following:
Rüdiger Wolfrum, “Means of Ensuring Compliance with and Enforcement
of International Environmental Law,” Recueil des Cours, Vol. 272
(1999) pp. 9-154.
Eric A. Posner and John C. Yoo, “Judicial Independence in
International Tribunals,” California Law Review, Vol. 93, No. 1
(2005) pp. 1-74.
Laurence R. Helfer and Anne-Marie Slaughter, “Why States Create
International Tribunals: A Response to Professors Posner and Yoo,”
California Law Review, Vol. 93, No. 3 (2005) pp. 899-956.
A comprehensive reading list will be supplied before the start of the course.
About half of each weekly session will be devoted to a lecture outlining the main substantive and theoretical acquis and to highlight the areas of scholarly contention, with the remaining half being devoted to an interactive discussion of the readings for that week.
The aim is to help students to create linkages between the different sub-fields of the discipline, differentiate between established positions and minority views, and distinguish genuinely legal from political or moral arguments.
The purpose of this class is a critical engagement with the discipline and students should therefore be prepared to respond to questions and actively engage in discussions.
There will be no powerpoints used in class.
- Category
- Hours
- Preparation
- 364,5
- Seminar
- 48
- Total
- 412,5
Enrolling as a Single Master Level/ Credit Student:
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For further
information
- Credit
- 15 ECTS
- Type of assessment
- Written assignment, 3 dayWritten without supervision (homework assignment) 3 day
- Censorship form
- No external censorship
- Exam period
Exam date: 11. - 14. of December 2015.
- Re-exam
Exam date: 5. - 8. of February 2016.
Criteria for exam assesment
The course is evaluated by a written, open-book, three-day
take-home examination limited to 5000 words excluding footnotes
(less is better; quality not quantity counts!).
The exam poses three different types of questions requiring
different writing and presentation skills:
Students will have to:
- write a professional memorandum giving concrete legal advice
based on a case study, advising a fictitious
government department on what to do in an international legal
crisis
- define concisely 15 concepts presented in the readings and
place them into context
- write a coherent essay arguing for or against a normative position of international law.
The criterion for evaluation is the student’s demonstration of the following knowledge, skills and competencies, that is being able to:
- Identify and differentiate the different legal problems
contained in a given international problem (case study)
- Identify the applicable international principles and the
exceptions to general rules that might apply to the given problem
- Present and evaluate recent changes in international law
leading to changes in some of these general and special rules
- Propose concrete solutions and alternative courses of action
for the given recipient of international legal advice
(government department), clearly highlighting the respective
strengths and weaknesses of different approaches
- Identify, contextualise and evaluate key concepts proposed in
the reading, with particular reference to the way they
represent or alter the dominant interpretation of international law
- Present and evaluate the main methodological and normative
challenges within the discipline, clearly weighting the
persuasiveness of different theoretical propositions
- Communicate these findings professionally, persuasively, and rigorously.
Course information
- Language
- English
- Course code
- JJUA55094U
- Credit
- 15 ECTS
- Level
- Full Degree Master
- Duration
- 1 semester
- Placement
- Autumn
- Schedule
- For teaching time see timetable
- Continuing and further education
- Price
DKK 15.000
- Study board
- Law
Contracting department
- Law
Course responsibles
- Ebrahim Afsah (13-6a6777666d6e7233666b78666d456f7a7733707a336970)
Lecturers
Ebrahim Afsah