Course Catalogue

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The course identifies key questions arising from the impact of globalisation on the law, and turns to contemporary debates on human rights and distributive justice as normative solutions. The aim is to explore how international community reacts to such challenges as increasing conflicts and fragmentation of legal orders, the rise of non-state actors, the emergence of trans-national obligations, and the decreasing importance of state consent as a source of legitimacy and authority of international law. The course begins with an overview of the scholarly debate about changing sources and structures of international legal obligations and international responsibility. It then introduces the students to philosophical debates about international distributive justice and human rights. These theoretical discussions are then used as a framework for appraising a range of contemporary governance trends that are debated in international legal system and policy-making (e.g. fair-trade regulations, global supply chain due diligence, business and human rights). The aim is to help the students to engage critically and constructively with reforms of global governance, and to give them the concrete theoretical tools to understand the most pressing debates in this area.

Two-hour seminars every week for ten weeks.

This course is only available to LLB students.

It is recommended for the students to have some prior knowledge of international law and legal theory (e.g. from their previous attendance of the basic level courses in these two areas).

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The summative assessment comprises:

One 3000-word essay (70%).

One oral group presentation in class (30%)

■ At the beginning of the course the students will be assigned to one of the 6 thematic topics on which they will have to prepare their presentation. The students will then be put into groups to prepare a presentation.

■ Presentations will be given by students at the beginning of each seminar.

■ For each presentation, 15 minutes will be given for a presentation, 10 minutes for questions and answers from staff and other students, and 5 minutes for the feedback from the teaching staff.

A clear set of criteria for assessing the presentation has been developed, and it will be communicated to students in the course document, and used for carrying out the assessment of the oral presentation.

Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. Where, exceptionally, reassessment on Honours courses is required to satisfy professional/accreditation requirements, only the overall course grade achieved at the first attempt will contribute to the Honours classification. For non-Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below. 

This course aims:

■ to introduce students to the key debates on human rights and distributive justice at the global level;

■ to facilitate the reflection on conditions of legitimacy of legal governance beyond the established legal orders;

■ to develop the capacity to construct and engage with philosophical arguments;

■ to apply philosophical arguments (oral and written) to the process of creating and enforcing legal obligations beyond the state.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

- Critically assess the new and emerging paradigms that aim to address the perceived injustices of contemporary international law and global governance, and identify cases where questions of legitimacy arise with respect to legal governance with an eye to applying theory to practical, social and legal problems.

- Develop interdisciplinary skills, such as using abstract and philosophical thinking to analyse the instances of international legal practice, engaging with international policy debates from a critical perspective, communicating the sense of (un)fairness and/or (in)justice in legal and policy-oriented arguments.

- Developing oral skills suitable for research-led reasoning and argumentation.

Students must submit at least 80% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.