Module LAW43830: Fundamental Issues in International Legal Governance

Department: Law

LAW43830: Fundamental Issues in International Legal Governance

Prerequisites

• None

Corequisites

• • Fundamental Issues in International Legal Governance

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None

Aims

• This module aims to provide students with an understanding and knowledge of the range of legal systems and issues which make up the contemporary global governance order. The module also aims to enable students to draw together the various substantive questions concerning the history and theory of international law, international economic law, international dispute resolution, international humanitarian and human rights law and international peace and security, amongst other topics which will be covered over the rest of the programme. The module will raise the student's awareness of to the conceptual and critical aspects of the international, transnational, trans-civilisational, regional and domestic legal questions central to the contemporary legal infrastructure.

Content

• A selection of topics in the following indicative areas will run in each year:
• Law-Making Processes: Consent and Normativity
• The form and authority of international law: treaties, custom, judicial decisions and other sources of law
• Participants in the International Legal System: States, International Organisations, non-State actors and individuals
• Responsibility and Accountability in a decentralised legal order: contemporary challenges
• International Law and its Others: post-colonial, feminist, and Critical challenges
• Defining Global Governance
• Interaction between Law and Governance
• Contemporary Issues at the UN/World Bank/IMF/WTO
• Historical Evolution of the Global Legal Order
• Reform of the International Legal Order
• Constitutionalisation
• Fragmentation
• Global Legal Pluralism
• Global Administrative Law

Learning Outcomes

• Students will have:
• A thorough knowledge of the fundamental principles underlying global legal governance;#
• A demonstrably in-depth knowledge of certain key aspects of the contemporary debates on international law and governance and its relationship with wider issues in international law;
• A familiarity with the interaction between the variety of legal orders and the substantive law which underpins their operation.

• Students should be able to:
• interpret and evaluate critically relevant documents within global governance and identify the theoretical and critical approaches informing their interpretation;
• appreciate how international law interacts with broader governance, political and historical developments;
• identify key contemporary issues within international law and governance, as well as international law more generally, such as the interaction between the various international and regional institutions or law.

• Students should be able to:
• demonstrate an ability to understand and analyse critically a wide variety of complex issues, drawing on a variety of materials;
• develop expertise in conducting legal research using materials from a variety of national, regional and international sources;
• describe accurately and coherently the arguments and analysis of academic commentators;
• write and present orally in a clear and structured way and put forward ideas in a scholarly manner;
• and demonstrate an ability to explore creatively complex issues in writing.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• The course will be taught through a series of introductory lectures and seminars over the first teaching term. This will consist of six introductory one hour lectures over the first two weeks followed by 8 weeks of two hour seminars. The lectures will introduce the students to the broad themes of the course and the contemporary topics to be covered over the term. The seminars will each cover substantive topics on the course and will be based on set reading to be prepared prior to the seminar.
• The second term will begin with a two-hour lecture on the contemporary topic to be covered in the following debates as well as outlining the format in which the debates will take place. This will be followed by eight hours of student debate over the following four weeks. The first four hours will be assessed formatively and after a break of two weeks, the second four hours of debate will be evaluated through summative assessment. The students will then prepare an essay based upon their debate presentation for summative assessment.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

One Debate, 10 mins plus 5 min response

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University