LW924-7-FY-CO:
International Human Rights: Theories and Institutions
2020/21
Essex Law School
Colchester Campus
Full Year
Postgraduate: Level 7
ReassessmentOnly
Thursday 08 October 2020
Friday 02 July 2021
30
03 October 2019
Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
This module examines the key substantive rights obligations under international human rights law, weaving together civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights. It will also consider the obligations necessary to secure, ensure, protect, and progressively realise these rights for vulnerable individuals, including the rights of children, persons with disabilities, migrant workers, and indigenous peoples and minorities.
The module builds on the recognition that all human rights are interrelated and interdependent, and of equal importance within the international system. We therefore group together rights based on their purpose and focus, rather than their 'categorization' within the international system as civil, political, economic, social, and cultural. This provides a unique and important overview and approach to the international definition of human rights.
The module ensures students on the LLM International Human Rights, LLM Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and LLM International Human Rights Law (economic relations) have a firm grounding in the core approaches to substantive rights that underpin modern international human rights law. To achieve this goal, the lectures include (A) an overview of the differences and similarities between civil and political rights on the one hand and economic, social, and cultural rights on the other; (B) an understanding of the substantive limitations to human rights obligations; (C) an overview of core, common, and significantly challenging human rights; and (D) a consideration of how these rights and states' obligations are manifested and altered in treaties protecting children, persons with disabilities, and migrant workers.
The emphasis throughout the module is to bring theory into practice, and to understand how the law has developed, what rights exist now, how to apply those rights to modern challenges, and how to challenge the status quo to advance the rights.
This module aims to provide students with a strong substantive and practical understanding of international human rights law (IHRL). The emphasis in this module is on the normative content of IHRL, to this end, the module is organized around four themes: common issues; limitations to the obligations; specific obligations; and substantive alterations for protected individuals. Many students enrolled for LW924, although not all, will also be enrolled for LW901 ‘International Human Rights: Theories and Institutions’, in which emphasis is placed on the theory, institutional architecture and implementation of IHRL.
During 1997 Judge Buergenthal (a leading IHRL commentator) commented that the “evolving international human rights system” has evolved in four sequential stages: “the normative foundation”; “institution building”; “implementation in the post-Cold War era”; and “individual criminal responsibility, minority rights and collective humanitarian intervention”. While there is considerable overlap between these stages, this formulation is useful in recognizing the respective roles of LW924 and LW901 in contributing to your holistic understanding of IHRL.
LW924 focuses very much on the first stage (the normative foundation), whereas LW901 relates both to the first stage (in as far as it engages with theory of human rights), as well as the second and third stages (institution building and implementation). Aspects of Buergenthal’s fourth stage can be studied in a number of electives.
While it is, for those who are doing both LW924 and LW910, of great importance to recognize the linkages between what you learn in these modules, IHRL is complex, and it is not always possible to neatly compartmentalize issues between broader themes, such as “law and practice” and “theories and institutions”. As such, some overlap is inevitable. Moreover, while LW924 and LW901 complement one another, they are designed to be taught as self-standing modules.
Syllabus
OVERVIEW OF TOPICS:
A. Common issues
1. Introduction to ICCPR / ICESCR and their common obligations (respect, protect, and fulfil))
2. Interrelated, Interdependence, and Universality?
3. Right to an effective remedy, justiciability & enforcement
B. Limitations to the Obligations
4. Progressive realisation versus immediate obligations in ICESCR
5. International assistance & cooperation in ICESCR
6. Flexibility in IHRL (states of emergencies; limitations)
C. Specific Obligations
Obligations related to Life and Bodily Integrity
7. Right to Life
8. Adequate standard of living
9. Health
10. Torture
11. Arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, and fair trial rights
12. Counter-terrorism and human rights
Obligations related to Expression, Thought, and Association
13. Education
14. Freedom of religion, speech, assembly & association
15. Rights to privacy, marriage and family life (ICESCR Art. 10; ICCPR Arts.17, 23)
16. Minority rights & cultural rights
C. Substantive Alterations for Protected Individuals
17. Rights of the Child
18. Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Migrants Workers
Seminars/Lectures (weekly): From week 2, LW924 will be taught in weekly seminars/lectures of 2 hours’ duration on Thursdays from 11:00 to 13:00 in 5.300 B.
These weekly sessions will run for 18 weeks (Term I: weeks 2-8 and 10-11 (week 9 is reading week);
Term II: weeks 16-25 (week 24 is reading week). You are expected to attend the seminars every week.
- Anghie, Antony. (2005-01-03) Imperialism, Sovereignty and the Making of International Law: Cambridge University Press.
- Larking, Emma. (2014) 'Universal Periodic Review’s First Cycle: Successes and Failures', in Human Rights and the Universal Periodic Review: Rituals and Ritualism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press., pp.87-108
- Hunt, Paul; and others. (2013) 'Implementation of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights', in Routledge handbook of international human rights law, Abingdon: Routledge.
- Rao, Rahul. (2014-09-01) 'The locations of homophobia', in London Review of International Law. vol. 2 (2) , pp.169-199
- (March 2000) UN Human Rights Committee, General Comment 28, HRI/GEN/1/Rev.9 (Vol. I)..
- Mutua, Makau. (no date) The Transformation of Africa: A Critique of Rights Discourse,’ in Felipe Gomez Isa and Koen de Feyter., pp.899-924
- (2018) International human rights law, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Gross, Aeyal. (2018) 'Homoglobalism: the emergence of global gay governance', in Queering international law: possibilities, alliances, complicities, risks, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
- Hernández, Tanya Katerí. (2019-01-15) 'Racial Discrimination', in Brill Research Perspectives in Comparative Discrimination Law. vol. 3 (1) , pp.1-69
- UN Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights Committee, General Comment 9: The domestic application of ICESCR (1998), https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=E%2fC.12%2f1998%2f24&Lang=en
- Gaer, Felice D. (2014) 'The High Commissioners and the Special Procedures: Colleagues and Competitors', in The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights: conscience for the world, Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. vol. volume 3, pp.133-156
- (2020) Research methods for international human rights law: beyond the traditional paradigm, New York, NY: Routledge.
- Refworld | Yogyakarta Principles - Principles on the application of international human rights law in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity, https://www.refworld.org/docid/48244e602.html
- Rishmawi, Mervat. (2010) 'The Arab Charter on Human Rights and the League of Arab States: An Update', in Hum. Rts. L.. vol. 10 (2010) , pp.169-1782010
- Toonen v. Australia, Communication No. 488/1992, U.N. Doc CCPR/C/50/D/488/1992 (1994)., http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/undocs/html/vws488.htm
- Chimni, B. S. (2006) 'Third World Approaches to International Law: A Manifesto', in Int'l Comm. L.. vol. 8 (2006) , pp.3-2820068
- MacKinnon, Catharine A. (2006) Are women human?: and other international dialogues, Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
- (August 2018) UN Secretary-General, Status of the human rights treaty body system, 2nd Status Report, UN Doc A/73/309.
- Fernandez, Bina. (2018) 'Queer border crossers: Pragmatic complicities, indiscretions and subversions', in Queering international law: possibilities, alliances, complicities, risks, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge., pp.193-212
- Charlesworth, H.; Chinkin, C.; Wright, S. (1991) 'Feminist Approaches to International Law', in American Journal of International Law. vol. 85 (4) , pp.613-645
- (no date) ILGA World, ‘State-Sponsored Homophobia,’ 2019.
- Kapur, Ratna. (2018) 'The (im)possibility of queering international human rights law', in Queering international law: possibilities, alliances, complicities, risks, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge., pp.131-147
- (2018-09) International Human Rights Law: Oxford University Press. vol. 1
- Charlesworth, Hilary; Chinkin, C. M. (2000) The boundaries of international law: a feminist analysis, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
- Barreto, José-Manuel. (2013) 'Introduction: Decolonial Strategies and Dialogue in the Human Rights Field', in Human Rights from a Third World Perspective: Critique, History and International Law, Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge University Press., pp.1-38
- (no date) Principles Relating to the Status and Functioning of National Institutions for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights (Paris Principles) April (1993).
- Phan, Hao Duy. (2008) 'The Evolution towards an Asean Human Rights Body', in Asia-Pac. J. on Hum. Rts. &. vol. 9 (2008) , pp.1-1220089
- Hannum, Hurst; Hurst, Hannum. (2016) 'Reinvigorating Human Rights for the Twenty-First Century', in Hum. Rts. L.. vol. 16 (2016) , pp.409-4522016
- Crenshaw, K. (1989) 'Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics', in University of Chicago Legal Forum., pp.139-168
- Eslava, LuisPahuja, Sundhya. (2011) 'Between Resistance and Reform: TWAIL and the Universality of International Law', in Trade L. &. vol. 3 (2011) , pp.103-
- UN Human Rights Committee, General Comment 31: The nature of the general legal obligation imposed on States parties to ICCPR, (2004), https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CCPR%2fC%2f21%2fRev.1%2fAdd.13&Lang=en
- Alston, Philip. (2014) 'Against a World Court for Human Rights', in Ethics & International Affairs. vol. 28 (2) , pp.197-212
- Kaleidoscope Trust, https://kaleidoscopetrust.com/about-us/
- Carver, Richard. (2010) 'A New Answer to an Old Question: National Human Rights Institutions and the Domestication of International Law', in Hum. Rts. L.. vol. 10 (2010) , pp.1-32201010
- (2000) Global Critical Race Feminism: An International Reader, New York, NY: New York University Press.
- Cambridge Core. (2013) Human Rights: The Hard Questions, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Samson, Colin. (2020) The colonialism of human rights: ongoing hypocrisies of western liberalism, Medford, MA: Polity.
The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course. The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students. Further reading can be obtained from this module's reading list.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
| Coursework |
Foundation Essay - LW924 |
|
|
| Exam |
Main exam: 180 minutes during Summer (Main Period)
|
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Dr Gus Waschefort, email: g.waschefort@essex.ac.uk.
Dr Gus Waschefort
lawpgtadmin@essex.ac.uk
No
No
No
Dr Thomas Pegram
University College London
Associate Professor
Available via Moodle
Of 36 hours, 36 (100%) hours available to students:
0 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s).
Essex Law School
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