Alonso Gurmendi Dunkelberg

This course is compulsory on the MSc in Human Rights. This course is available on the MSc in Gender, Peace and Security. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process. For information on controlled access courses, including eligibility, application processes, deadlines, and departmental contact details, please refer to the Controlled Access Courses webpage.

This course has a limited number of places. Students who have this course as a compulsory course are guaranteed a place. For all other students, places are allocated based on a written statement.

For information on how to apply for a place on this course, including deadlines, please see Courses offered and related information.

The course provides an introduction to legal and critical approaches to international human rights. We will discuss evolving legal norms in key areas of contemporary relevance and examine critical arguments about the intellectual and institutional history of international human rights, about the form of law and of legal practice.  By the end of the course, you should have a good understanding of how lawyers debate human rights as well as how those debates themselves can be considered in the context of other perspectives. Topics may include women’s rights, labour rights, and the right to self-determination.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.

This course is usually delivered through a combination of lectures and seminars. There will be two hours or more of teaching each week in AT. 

All students are expected to submit one piece of non-assessed written work. 

• Alston, P. and Mégret, F., 2020. Introduction: appraising the United Nations human rights regime. The United Nations and Human Rights—A Critical Appraisal, 2nd ed.; Alston, P., Mégret, F., Eds, pp.2-7.
• Charlesworth, H., 2012. Law-making and sources. In The Cambridge companion to international law. Cambridge University Press.
• Çubukçu, A., 2014, Thinking against Humanity. London review of international law, 5(2), 2017-07-01, 251 – 267.
• Esmeir, S., 2012. Juridical humanity: A colonial history. Stanford University Press.
• Knox, R., 2019. A Marxist approach to RMT v the United Kingdom. In Research Methods for International Human Rights Law (pp. 13-41). Routledge.
• Krever, T., 2013. International criminal law: An ideology critique. Leiden Journal of International Law, 26(3), pp.701-723.
• Pashukanis, E., 2017. The general theory of law and Marxism. Routledge.

Course participation (15%).

Essay (85%, 4000 words) in January.

Attendance at all seminars and submission of all set coursework is required.