Overview

This course introduces students to public international law and its relationship with global affairs and public policy. The course will present foundational information such as the history and sources of international law, international legal personality and key actors in international law, questions of jurisdiction, the relationship between international and domestic law, and the settlement of international legal disputes. It will then consider key topics in international law such as the protection of human rights and the environment, the laws of war, international criminal law, and economic and trade law, considering both the content of the law and its application in selected case studies. This course will draw on a range of views about the nature, impacts, limits, legitimacy, and future of international law, and illuminate the ways that international law shapes and is shaped by politics and power. Students will consider both dominant/”mainstream” voices and ideas in the field, and insights and critiques of those who have often been at its margins, including Indigenous and feminist perspectives.