Glossary

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International Human Rights - JURD7781

Faculty: Faculty of Law

School: Faculty of Law

Course Outline: See below

Campus: Sydney

Career: Postgraduate

Units of Credit: 6

EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)

Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 2

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: LAWS8181

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 involves a study of the fundamental legal principles and institutions of international human rights, through the medium of contemporary human rights concerns. The course begins with an examination of the human rights framework in international law and the mechanisms for enforcing human rights including consideration of the position of the United Nations in this era of reform before moving onto the exam of other contemporary human rights issues. This course is part of a general offering of human rights and social justice topics within the UNSW Law School and aims to provides students with an introductory approach to select human rights issues. It is generally offered in Semester 1 and 2 each year.

Recommended Prior Knowledge

None

Course Objectives

Aims of the course are:

To examine and analyse the main legal concepts and principles of international human rights law
To assess the effectiveness of avenues for enforcement of international human rights principles and law
To develop the skills necessary for communicating and debating the role human rights play in the development of law and society

At the end of this course, you should be able to:

Have a sound knowledge of the main legal concepts and principles of international human rights law
Explain in your own words the meaning of legal concepts, doctrines and principles we have studied
Analyse the primary sources of human rights law
Demonstrate an ethical understanding of the nature of human rights law and be aware of on-going and future issues in the area of human rights
Demonstrate your ability to think critically and to justify your ideas in a reasoned manner, rather than purely by way of dogmatic assertions or emotional responses communicate effectively in speaking and in writing

Main Topics

What are human rights?
Contemporary concerns: human rights issues, for example this may include genocide; disability discrimination
Framework of the human rights system
Human rights enforcement
UN reform

Assessment

Class participation 10%
(Performance and participation in class)

Short answer question 15%
(One 750 words max.)

Research essay 75%
(5,000 - 5,500 words )

Course Texts

Prescribed

Adam McBeth, Justine Nolan & Simon Rice, The Law of International Human Rights, OUP, 2011

Recommended
None

Order from UNSW Bookshop

Resources

Refer to Course Outline provided by lecturer at the beginning of the relevant semester.