This course aims to study selected current topics of public international law in more depth than is possible in the introductory LAWS4080 Principles of International Law course. The formation and operation of the rules of international law will be examined and assessed in the context of current events. The general substantive framework for the course will therefore not be selected until the semester before the course runs. By way of example, past topics have included international criminal law, State responsibility for internationally wrongful acts, international law and terrorism, the law relating to international humanitarian assistance, and law, violence and the international order. Specific topics to be examined within the selected substantive area will be chosen having regard to the interests of students taking the course. The objective is to consolidate and deepen students’ understanding of international law and the modalities through which it informs and creates the world in which we live.

In 2010, this course will consider the position of minority groups in international law and international human rights law. International law is predicated on the State and accommodates the individual, but does not readily include groups of individuals. The course will address how minority groups have been dealt with in international and regional instruments and how far States have implemented their international obligations.

International Law;
Human Rights and Social Justice.

LAWS8180 Principles of International Law (or equivalent) OR LAWS8181 International Human Rights is a compulsory pre-requisite for this course.

To enable students to develop an understanding of the issues involved in complex contemporary areas of international law.

1. Historical Roots of Minority Rights.
Minorities - a global perspective; Capitulations; Peace Treaties; Intervention for Co-Religionists; the Ottoman Regime in the 19th century; WWI and the League of Nations; Genocide.

2. Definitions

a. States, Nations and Minorities.
States - a legal construct; nations - a political construct; nations and nationalism; minorities
without a kin-State (Roma).

b. Minorities, Indigenous Peoples, Peoples.
Is a definition possible? Can rights be accorded to something undefined? Categories of Minorities - national, ethnic, religious or linguistic?

3. The United Nations and Minorities.
UN Charter - “We the Peoples ...”; Sub-Commission; Article 27, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; Human Rights Committee; 1992 Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious or Linguistic Minorities

4. Indigenous people

5. European mechanisms

a. The Council of Europe and Minorities.
European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms;
Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities; Recommendation 1201;
Minority Languages Charter.

b. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and Minorities.
Helsinki Final Act 1975; Copenhagen 1990; Geneva 1991; Vienna and Moscow Mechanisms;
High Commissioner on National Minorities.

6. Collective Rights and Democratic Governance: Self-Determination and Autonomy.
UN Charter, 1945; Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and
Peoples, 1960; Declaration on Principles of International Law Concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in Accordance with the Charter of the UN, 1970; Vienna Declaration on Human Rights, 1993; Badinter Commission; Article 1, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, plus General Comment; Quebec Secession Case, 1998; Articles 9 and 11, Recommendation 1201.

The lecturer for 2010 is Professor Geoff Gilbert, University of Essex.