Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Sovereignty, nationality, jurisdiction, arbitration. Examination of selected cases exemplifying present trends in the international legal order.

COURSE DETAILS:

This course is an introduction to the principles, practices and institutions that govern relations among states as well as non-state actors in global affairs. At once centuries-old yet fast-changing, public international law is of great practical and theoretical interest.

Fresh challenges with regard to climate change, humanitarian intervention, surveillance, migration, nuclear proliferation, and digital networks, among others, make this a particularly exciting field. States increasingly depend on international organizations and institutions — from the specialized agencies of the United Nations to the European Union, International Criminal Court, World Trade Organization, and International Red Cross — in pursuing their interests and resolving disputes. Meanwhile, issues relating to state sovereignty, and how entities claiming to be formally equal and juridically supreme can be bound by extrinsic legal constraints, as well as to the special character of a legal system which lacks a centralized enforcement agency, weigh on legal-political theorists. Multimedia resources will supplement the course text, both in class and on the course website.  

There will be one 3-hour seminar and a 1-hour tutorial per week.  Tutorials start Week Two.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING: