Actualités et agenda
Nos formations
Présentation
This is an optional course designed for ESPOL Licence RI students in the second year.
International exchange students are welcome to take this course, provided they have already completed a B.A. degree and depending on the total number of places available. Please note that I do not admit auditors, i.e. students who only wish to follow the course out of a general interest but without the intention to fulfill the course requirements (see below). To suceed and obtain ECTS points, students are required to attend regularly, read all assigned texts, participate actively, and perform sufficiently on all course assignments (see below).
The expansion and breadth of international law and institutions over global politics in the past sixty years continue to underscore the ever-increasing intertwining between international law and global politics. Yet, the geopolitical arrangements of the latter half of the twentieth century of “embedded liberalism”, decolonisation and the “end of history” have given way to new challenges such as, terrorism, internal conflicts, weapons of mass destruction and human rights. What role can international law play in a deeply divided world where multinationals often hold more power and more assets than many nation states and where the state’s monopolistic claim as law’s harbinger is increasingly under attack?
The primary aim of this course is to introduce students to international law concepts and norms and to explore its development and authority in an ever-changing world system. Ever since the 20th century, international law which was initially conceived as the law of nations has today expanded to also encompass rights and duties of international and transnational organizations, as well as individuals. Further, it has moved from a law regulating mainly western states to one regulating both western and non-western states. In addition, international law is continuously called upon to deal with new challenges ranging from global migrations, terrorism to changing conceptions of security and of the state.
The first six sessions of the module explore these changes by looking at topical issues of international law, such as the conduct of war, humanitarian intervention, human rights, terrorism. One of the core challenges facing international law is the tension between the continued traction for international legal responses to emerging threats but the unevenness of the authority of international law in global and national governance. The last two sessions discuss this challenge by looking at the practical applicability and import of international law, focusing on the roles played by international and national courts in (re)shaping local and global politics.
The course will take place on site. Please note that it will start on September 11th 2023.
The course spans over 18 hours, divided in 9 sessions.
In case of any change of schedule, students will be informed through the scolarité.
The first six sessions will each be organised around two sets of topical issues that illustrate and question the expansion of international law and its fraught relationship with global and national politics.
Sessions 7 and 8 will be organised around the question of international law, global value chains et climate change. These sessions will have a practical import: they will combine guest lectures (tbc) and practical case-studies.
There will be one mandatory reading per session. Students will be required to mobilise these readings for the exam (see below). The texts will be uploaded on iCampus. Students are not required to read the texts before the sessions. On the contrary, it might be useful to read them to reflect on each session’s learning outcomes.
At the end of each session, a pdf version of the slides will be uploaded on iCampus. Additionally, a short series of recap questions will be provided so that students may test what they have understood to be the core questions of each session. Note that these questions are provided as a means of self-evaluation: you will not have to hand over written answers but should use these as talking points to discuss and raise in class and to prepare for the final exam.
The evaluation will consist of a final exam at the end of the semester.
The exam is scheduled to last two hours and to take place online.
It will focus specifically on the last two sessions. Students will be provided with a practical case and required to mobilise learning outcomes from the first six sessions of the course, as well as the practical import of sessions 7 and 8. It will be an open-book exam. This means that students may access their notes and any relevant international treaties/conventions. The general expectation is that students show their ability to engage with the practical case both critically and empirically.
Specific expectations will be discussed in detail during the last session.
Modalités
Session 1 - Course Introduction - 17 January 2023 - 2-4pm
· Course introduction
· Welcome quiz
· Why examine the relationship between international law and politics?
Part 1. Politics of international law in a divided world
Session 2 - International law as politics? - 24 January 2023 - 1-3pm
· Colonialism, imperialism and the problem of sovereignty in the post-colonial international order
· Human rights, state and non-state actors in a neoliberal world
Compulsory readings:
Anghie, A (2006) ‘Decolonizing the concept of ‘good governance’’ in Gruffydd Jones, B (ed.) Decolonizing International Relations (Lanham, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc) 109- 130
Dezalay, Y and Garth, BG (2006) ‘From the Cold war to Kosovo: the rise and renewal of the field of international human rights’ 2 Annual Review of law and social science 231-55
Session 3 – International law and the politics of war - 31 March 2023 - 1-3pm
· From the “just war” to the United Nations
· Interventions
· Terrorism and international law
· Cyber warfare
Compulsory readings:
· Hathaway, O and Shapiro, S (2019) “International Law and its transformation through the outlawry of war” 95(1) International Affairs 45-62
· Hakimi, M and Katz Cogan, J (2016) ‘The two codes on the use of force’ 27(2) The European Journal of International Law 257-271
Session 4 - International law and the politics of humanitarianism - 7 February 2022 - 1-3pm
· Humanitarian intervention in the Cold war
· Humanitarian intervention and the war on terror
Compulsory readings:
Orford, A (1999) ‘Muscular Humanitarianism: reading the narratives of the new interventionism’ 10(4) European Journal of International Law 679-711
Report on Welsh, J ‘The return of history’, Lecture 2, The 2016 CBC Massey Lectures https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/the-2016-massey-lectures-the-return-of-history-1.3695531
Session 5 - Methods session: International law and interdisciplinary research - 21 February 2023 – 1-3pm
· Fieldwork memo, research proposal and in-class presentation: expectations
· Migration, terrorism and climate change: discussion on methods and empirical choices
Compulsory readings:
Burridge, A and Gill, N (2017) ‘Conveyor-Belt Justice: Precarity, Access to Justice, and uneven geographies of legal aid in UK asylum appeals’ 49(1) Antipode 23-42
Kaleck, W and Schüller, A (2019) ‘Universal Jurisdiction gains new momentum’ FICHL Policy Brief Series No. 96
Seck, S L (2017) ‘Revisiting transnational corporations and extractive industries: climate justice, feminism, and state sovereignty’ 26(2) Transnational Law and Contemporary Problems 383-414.
Session 6 – International law and the politics of global justice - 28 February 2023 - 1-3pm
· The judicialization of the international political order
· The tension between politics and justice
Compulsory readings:
Levi, R, Hagan, J, Dezalay, S (2016) ‘International Courts in Atypical Political Environments: The Interplay of Prosecutorial Strategy, Evidence, and Court Authority in International Criminal Law’ Law and Contemporary Problems 78(4) 289-314
Aaronson, E and Shaffer, G (2020) ‘Defining crimes in a global age: criminalization as a transnational legal process’ 46(