0055223 - ADVANCED INTERNATIONAL LAW

English

This course offers students a unique opportunity as it combines the theoretical knowledge of the origin and development of human rights law in an international perspective with the experience acquired by the activists working for one of the oldest and most prestigious human rights NGOs: Amnesty International. The course will focus on the protection of the multifaceted right to life and the prohibition of torture in international law.

Students attending the course: The textbook is I. Bantekas e L. Oette, International Human Rights Law and Practice, Cambridge University Press, 2013 (available in the library). The pages of reference and other material will be indicated at the beginning of the course and inserted on the E-Moodle platform of the course.

Students not attending the course: I. Bantekas e L. Oette, International Human Rights Law and Practice, Cambridge University Press, 2013, pp. 9-325 and pp. 452-466 (available in the library); and R. McQuigg, What potential does the Council of Europe Convention on Violence against Women hold as regards domestic violence?, in The International Journal of Human Rights, 2012, pp. 947-962 (write to luisa.vierucci@unifi.it to get a copy of McQuigg's article). In addition, students have to know the text of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), available at http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/ProfessionalInterest/ccpr.pdf

Knowledge: to deal with the main universal and regional systems of protection of human rights by examining their control mechanisms, in particular with respect to the right to life as protected within the United Nations and the Council of Europe.

Competence: to familiarise with the main legal issues arising from the universal and regional systems of protection of human rights so as to employ this knowledge within international (governmental or non-governmental) organisations, national ministries, multinational corporations and international tribunals.

Abilities acquired at the end of the course: a) critical analysis of the international rules on human rights in order to devise ways to enhance the implementation of human rights both at the universal and European level; b) critical thinking on the international case-law relative to human rights with special reference to the right to life.

Students must have completed an introductory course to International Law of at least 6 credits. This is a compulsory requirement.

Lectures, also from Italian and foreign experts, and a workshop at the end of the course.

The students attending the course have to register for the class on the E-Moodle platform (http://e-l.unifi.it/ ask professor for the password) and download the material that the teacher will be posting on it. Registration is possible until October, 1st and download of the material until February, 15th, 2015.
No registration for the E-Moodle platform is allowed to non-attending students.

Students attending and not attending the course: written exam in English consisting in the answer to 3 out of 4 open questions in one and a half hour of time. No changes to the dates and modalities of the exam can be made either to Italian or foreign students.

The FIRST PART of the course, after a short introduction on the moral and legal foundations of human rights, will focus on the protection of human rights at the universal level. Fist of all, the main human rights treaties will be examined, with special reference to the two 1966 Covenants. Secondly, the mechanisms of the implementation of some treaties and the functioning of the recently established UN Human Rights Council will be analysed with a view to highlight the intricate web of control devices existing in the international human rights field.

The SECOND PART of the course will be conducted in a seminar format with students’ presentations and the intervention of the representatives of Amnesty International. This part will be devoted to the analysis of a specific right, i.e. the right to life, with special emphasis on the death penalty, the use of lethal force by law enforcement officials, and the international legal discipline of the protection of women against domestic violence. Also the prohibition against torture under current international law will be addressed, with specific reference to the recent case-law of the European Court of Human Rights. Students will have the chance to make presentations on a judgment or a report of an international judicial or control body such as the Human Rights Committee.