Courses

    Provides an intensive survey of international human rights law and practice. The principal focus is on interpretation, implementation and enforcement of human rights norms in the practice of states. The course examines the development of the substantive law of human rights (including basic international treaty instruments, "soft law," and customary international law) and international, regional, and domestic systems of enforcement, and includes treatment of the principles of international humanitarian law. The course highlights selected contemporary and ethical problems in international human rights law such as genocide and torture, application of human rights norms to non-state actors, universality of human rights norms and cultural relativism, and the need to protect human rights while countering terrorism, including those issues relevant to U.S. law and practice. Along the way we examine issues related to immunities, impunity, human rights litigation under the U.S. Alien Tort Statute, international criminal tribunals, and the use of force, and we also review the new treaty texts adopted by the United Nations General Assembly such as the Convention to Protect Against Enforced Disappearances.