Professor Christine Chinkin, Professor Susan Marks, Dr Andrew Lang, Dr Stephen Humphreys

An optional course available in the second and third years of the LLB, BA Anthropology and Law, BSc Environmental Policy, BSc Environmental Policy with Economics, BSc International Relations and BSc International Relations and History. Also available to second and third year students as an outside option where regulations permit.

This course provides an introduction to the concepts, principles, institutions and debates that define public international law today. We begin with an overview of the international legal system, considering how international law is made, how it relates to national legal systems, and what scope exists for pursuing those who violate it. In this connection we examine the work of the International Corut of Justice, the International Criminal Court and the various ad hoc international criminal tribunals, along with judgments of national courts invoking international law. We then take up a range of topical issues of global concern, studying the ways in which they affect and are affected by public international law. The issues to be discussed include: war, trade and investment, terrorism and counter-terrorism, global poverty, and human rights. We also investigate aspects of the history of international law, its role in relation to the establishment and retreat of European empires, and its contemporary significance and prospects. Overall, our aim is to lay the basis for an informed assessment of the contribution and limits of international law as a force in world affairs.

Two one-hour lectures and one one-hour class each week.

Students are expected to participate actively in weekly classes and to write a number of assignments during the year, as set by their class teachers.

Students are asked to buy: M. Evans (ed), International Law (3rd ed., 2010), and Blackstone's International Law Documents. Students may also wish to consult: D.J. Harris, International Law: Cases and Materials (7th ed., 2010); H. Charlesworth and C. Chinkin, The Boundaries of International Law (2000); M. Shaw, International Law (6th ed., 2008); A. Cassese, International Law (2nd ed., 2005); M. Koskenniemi, From Apology to Utopia (rev. ed., 2005); V. Lowe, International Law (2007); and I. Brownlie, Principles of Public International Law (7th ed., 2008). Detailed reading lists are provided throughout the course.

A written examination of 3 hours plus 15 minutes reading time taken in the ST.