Human Rights and Global Justice

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• formulate and defend your position in discussions relating to human rights and global justice.
• analyse and interpret interdisciplinary – legal, philosophical, political, and economic – materials, identify key legal principles and demands for global justice;
• critically analyse human rights’ capacity to deal with the most pressing problems of global justice;

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• main strategies of critique and justification of human rights theory and practice from perspectives of global justice.
• main issues surrounding the interrelation between international human rights law and global justice;
• global justice’s and human rights’ normative foundations, principles, major actors, institutional framework, as well as strategies, mechanisms, and practices of realisation;

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• undertake independent research and efficiently work with primary and secondary sources;
• communicate effectively knowledge and arguments both verbally and in writing and reference sources appropriately;
• demonstrate skills of self-management and an ability to reflect on the content and quality of your own work.

Indicative syllabus topics will include:

(1)Global Justice and Human Rights: A Complex Interrelation

(2)Translating Demands for Justice into the Language of Human Rights: Normative and Institutional Framework

(3)Whose Justice? Actors in the Global Domain

(4)Global Justice and Human Rights Obligations Beyond Borders

(5)Post-Colonial Critique of Human Rights

(6)Human Rights and Global Obligations in the Time of War

(7)“Me Too” and “Black Lives Matter”: Can Human Rights Ensure Gender and Racial Justice?

(8)Towards A Decent Social Minimum: Global Poverty, Inequality, and Human Rights

(9)Human Rights Potential and Limitations in Promoting Environmental Justice

(10)Digital Justice as a Matter of Human Rights

(11)The Future of Global Justice and Human Rights

The content, order, and scope of topics may vary from year to year. The precise content of the module will be confirmed in a module overview document distributed via the course Blackboard site before the first lecture.

Teaching methods:

This module is taught through seminars (11 x 2 hours). You are expected to prepare for each seminar by completing allocated reading and other seminar tasks.

Learning activities include:

(a) Directed reading, assisted by lists of required and further reading and (sometimes) availability of materials on Blackboard;

(b) Access to, and work with, electronic resources in the form of normative materials, case law, and literature;

(c) Analysis of various – legal, philosophical, political, and economic – sources;

(d) Tackling and solving factual human rights & global justice problems;

(e) Formulating and presenting in oral form (through class participation) and in written form (assessed essay) reasoned and structured arguments;

(f) Group work;

(g) Debates;

(h) Mini-presentations on selected topics;

(i) Commenting on other students’ presentations;

(j) Role plays;

(k) Simulations;

(l) Completion of formative & summative assessment.

Formative

This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.

Essay

• Assessment Type: Formative
• Feedback: Feedback will be via the Law School Feedback sheets, through comments written on the formative work, and orally in a class discussion of the formative work, as well as feedback as reflected in the mark awarded.
• Final Assessment: No
• Group Work: No

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.