Public International Law M1

The course will take place on site.

The course spans over 24 hours, divided in 11 sessions.

In case of any change of schedule, students will be informed through the scolarité.

The first part (sessions 1-4 and 6-8) of the course will review fundamental notions of international law. Each session in this part of the course will be organized around a short introduction to the theme by myself, followed by student-led discussions.

Session 5 will be a methods session, focused on the memo, policy brief and in-class presentations. Readings for this session are mandatory as they will help you prepare for your memo, policy brief and in-class presentations.

The second part (sessions 9-11) of the course will be organized around three topics: terrorism, migration and climate change.

These sessions will have both a research and practical import: they will build on discussions on research methods and examine law in action.

Evaluation process

The evaluation process will be threefold:

(1) In the first place, seeing that the course will not take a classic ex-cathedra form and leave substantial space for debate and discussion, students will be graded on their oral participation (20% of the final grade). It will therefore be imperative to duly prepare each session by familiarizing yourselves with the associated materials.

The course is centered on class discussions and all assigned readings are compulsory unless otherwise noted. For the quality of class discussion, it is essential that you do the readings before each session. The reading list, compulsory readings and assessment dates will be posted on I-campus during the first week of January 2023.

(2) Second, students will be required to write an assessment of the legal framework and/or case law on one of the three themes covered in the second part of the course (terrorism/migration/climate change) (1000 words) and present it in class. The memo and the in-class presentation will account for 30% of the final grade.

The memo needs to be handed out on the day of the presentation.

(3) Finally, each student will be asked to write a policy brief building on their legal framework/case-law memo. The 1500 words paper will target a specific audience, assessing and promoting changes to be made in the situation covered in the memo. This will account for 50% of the final grade.