Course

Public International Law - JURD7481

Faculty: Faculty of Law

School: Faculty of Law

Course Outline: See below

Campus: Kensington Campus

Career: Postgraduate

Units of Credit: 6

EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)

Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 3

Enrolment Requirements:

Pre-requisite: 36 UOC of JURD courses for students enrolled prior to 2013. For students enrolled after 2013, pre-requisite: 72 UOC of JURD courses.

Excluded: LAWS3381

CSS Contribution Charge: 3 (more info)

Tuition Fee: See Tuition Fee Schedule

Further Information: See Class Timetable

View course information for previous years.

Description

This course aims to provide students with a solid introduction to some central topics within the field of public international law. It is a recommended pre- or co-requisite for all other international law courses offered by the School of Law.

International law seeks to order human affairs at the international level. Accordingly, it covers a vast field, including autonomy of peoples and territories, the allocation of resources (land, maritime, air), the preservation of the environment, the regulation of inter-State transactions, the resolution of disputes and the maintenance of international peace and security. International law has become not only an important, but an integral, part of both the international and domestic legal orders. The centrality of international law to our everyday lives and, in particular, to our practice as lawyers, cannot be overstated.

Recommended Prior Knowledge

None

Course Objectives

The specific aims of the course are:
  • To assist students to develop an understanding of the issues involved in the regulation of human affairs beyond a single State
  • To give students a basic working knowledge of the structure of the international legal system and its relationship to the Australian legal system
  • To enable students to develop an awareness of different methods of international as compared to national law, in such matters as textual interpretation and working with judicial decisions
  • To assist students to recognize international legal problems in their subsequent careers and to point them in the direction of ways of resolving them

Main Topics

  • Nature, scope and development of international law
  • Structure of the international legal system
  • Sources of international law
  • Law of treaties
  • International and municipal law
  • Personality, statehood and recognition
  • Title to territory
  • State jurisdiction
  • Immunity from jurisdiction
  • State responsibility

Assessment

Class participation 10%
Mid-term research assignment (optional) 25%
Final exam either 65% or 90%, depending on optional essay
 

Course Texts

Prescribed

  • DJ Harris, Cases and Materials on International Law (7th ed 2010)
  • The 2nd edition of the Australian Supplement to Harris

Recommended

  • G Triggs, International Law: Contemporary Principles and Practices (LexisNexis Butterworths, 2nd ed 2010)
  • S Blay, R Piotrowicz and M Tsamenyi, Public International Law: An Australian Perspective (2nd ed OUP Melbourne 2005)
  • D Rothwell et all International Law (CUP, Cambridge, 2010)
  • I Brownlie, Basic Documents in International Law (5th ed OUP Oxford 2002)
  • M Evans (ed) International Law Documents (7th ed OUP Oxford 2005)
  • M Shaw, Public International Law (6th ed CUP Cambridge 2008)
Note that all international instruments are available online.

A particularly useful resource can be found at http://www.oup.com/uk/orc/bin/statutes/books/02international/weblinks, with links to all the major treaties.
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