Faculty of Law Undergraduate Handbook - Faculty of Law - The ...

Course Materials:Materials will be distributed at the start of the courseLAW 495 — Colonialism to Globalisation: How International Law Made a Third WorldCredit Points: 15 pointsOffered: First SemesterContact Hours: Lectures — 3 hours per weekCoordinator: Mohsen al AttarPrerequisites: LAW 201, 211, 231, 241Course Description:In the late 15th century, imperialist Europe emerged intent on exploring the new world. Fast forward through fivehundred years of colonialism, slavery, industrialisation, capitalism, and international law and greet the 21st century inall its paradoxical glory. We now live in a world characterised by political binaries of all sorts: developed &underdeveloped, civilised & primitive, rich & poor, lawful & unlawful. What role did international law play inintroducing the new world to the old one and, as some scholars have argued, in dispossessing the one to the benefit ofthe other?Content Outline:We will begin with an examination of Third World underdevelopment to better grasp the history behind current geopoliticaldivisions. Following this brief review, we will turn our attention to the colonial origins of international law witha view to understanding its relationship to Europe’s accumulationist aspirations. Next, we will consider Third Worldresistance and the outcome of their subversive campaigns. Our examination will take us through a series of casestudies — global trade, human rights, military intervention, and labour (de)regulation — all of which will be consideredprimarily from the perspective(s) of the Third World. We will conclude with an assessment of the legitimacy of theinternational legal regime as it stands and the place of democracy in possible legal reformation.Assessment:This course will be internally assessed. Details of the assessment will provided at the commencement of the course.LAW 496 — International Human RightsCredit Points: 15 pointsOffered: Second SemesterContact Hours: Lectures — 3 hours per weekCoordinator: Kris GledhillPrerequisites: NoneCourse Description:The course will provide an outline of the growing jurisprudence relating to international human rights law, with aparticular focus on the case law of the UN’s Human Rights Committee and the European Court of Human Rights. Itwill concentrate on the core civil and political rights protected; and it will also deal with the practicalities of howinternational human rights cases are brought in front of the main adjudicatory bodiesContent Outline:• The structure of international human rights treaties — global, regional; those which set principles and those whichalso allow individual complaints to be brought; and the relationship between international law and domestic law.• The content of the major substantive civil and political rights:- Life2010 Faculty of Law Handbook | 67