B5942 - INTERNATIONAL LAW OF THE GLOBAL COMMONS

Conoscenze e abilità da conseguire

The course offers an in-depth analysis of the international law frameworks dealing with global values and domains and the current challenges that hamper their effective implementation in an international Community still dominated and shaped by the concept of State and its interests. After introducing the notion of 'global commons' and the problems concerning global governance, the course focuses on a selection of key areas of global concern, such as the protection against genocide, cultural heritage, environment, the outer space and cybersecurity, by critically discussing the legal instruments that have been developed so far and their transformative impact on international law. At the end of the course, students are expected to be able to use legal tools and methodologies to address complex global and transnational scenarios and how rights and obligations extends to individuals, groups and the international Community beyond a State-centred approach to international law.

Contenuti

Structure of the course

The course is divided in two sections, which are organised into lectures and seminars according to the logic of the inverted classroom.

Lectures (16 hours) aim to introduce students to the core tenets of the discipline. Seminars (12 hours) aim to provide occasions for in-depth discussions of class materials and exercises. The division into lessons and seminars is specified in the programme below and will be further detailed in class.

In the seminar section, students are divided into two groups. Overall, students will be granted a total of 28 teaching hours, which are complemented by the hours to be dedicated to the preparation of seminars.

Students are required to carefully read the assigned material before each session and - in the case of seminars – to ensure active participation. Presentations of existing scholarship and case studies might be expected. Attendance is mandatory.

Programme

The first part, which is delivered through traditional teaching methodologies, aims to introduce the notion of 'global commons' and the general problems concerning global governance from an international law perspective. After dealing with key concepts, the course focuses on a selection of key areas of global concern as a way of example. To this end, on the one hand, it looks at the international rules protecting the core values of the International Community, such as human rights, the “safe and orderly” management of refugees, the prohibition of genocide. On the other hand, it explores those rules that protect the State and its agents from being held internationally responsible in case of serious breach of international law, including issues concerning immunity, and secondary international law rules that may have a significant impact in addressing global concerns, like the problem of reparations.

The second part, which involves the direct participation of students, investigates the universal and regional systems of human rights protection. After an introduction of the main universal and regional mechanisms and bodies involved in this area, students will be asked to explore in groups human rights issues in relation to global concerns, like armed conflicts, environment, business, artificial intelligence and gender equality.

Testi/Bibliografia

A full list of texts for each lecture and seminar will be communicated in class at the start of the teaching term.

As points of reference for the entire course, the following handbooks may be useful:

1. International Law, Malcolm N. Shaw, CUP, 2021;

2. International human rights law: theory and practice, Riccardo Pisillo Mazzeschi, Springer, 2021;

3. The Oxford Handbook of International Refugee Law, edited by C. Costello, M. Foster, J. McAdam, 2021;

4. International Humanitarian Law, E. Crawford and A. Pert, CUP, 2018.

Please note that some copies of these handbooks are available at the Ruffilli Library of the Forli’ campus.

Regular consultation of the following free online resources is highly recommended to be familiar with recent international law-based analyses:

- https://legal.un.org/avl/ls/internationallaw.html

- https://legal.un.org/ilc/

- https://www.icj-cij.org/en

- https://www.ejiltalk.org

- https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-journal-of-international-law/ajil-unbound

- www.sidiblog.org

Metodi didattici

Traditional lectures and interactive seminars (inverted class). 

Modalità di verifica e valutazione dell'apprendimento

The assessment of the course consists of a combination of two different evaluations. The final grade will be determined by the average of two mid-grades:

- 50% of the final grade is the result by the group-based presentation and discussion that students will be asked to prepare during the seminars. A maximum of 30 points are attributed to the entire group.

- 50% of the final grade is based on a written test on the entire programme to be carried out at the end of the course. A maximum of 30 points are attributed to each student.

Further details will be provided in class. The final grade resulting from the above assessments will be registered during the exam session in January-February 2025.

Strumenti a supporto della didattica

Virtuale - Unibo’s virtual learning space - will be used for both sections of the course. Additional teaching tools will be indicated in class.

Orario di ricevimento

Consulta il sito web di Carmelo Danisi