Politics of international law

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