44658 - Human Rights and History of International Law

Learning outcomes

The course aims at analyzing the relationships between human rights and history of international law in a comparative perspective, that considers  the Western international legal system and other legal systems, in particular the Islamic one.

The student achieves critically the knowledge and the understanding of the historical development of international law from the early modern age.

At the end of the course the student will be able to understand critically the historical development of international law. He knows and he is able to distinguish the main approaches of international law: the realistic perspective, the neo-grotian and the cosmopolitan ones.

Course contents

The course analyses the following topics:

I) Dignity and human rights. The plurality of interpretations of rights in different cultural traditions. The Un-making of the man's rights history from a non-Eurocentric perspective.

II) The origin of modern international law and the concept of people rights (XVI-XVII centuries). The western "legitimation" of the conquest of the New World. The American indian in western legal thought. F. de Vitoria, F. Vasquez de Menchaca, U. Grozio.

III) The international law in XIX century. The international law as the European law of "civilized" peoples. The European international law as a "Christian" law. Comparison with other civilizations, in particular with the Islamic one. The Islamic law of nations ("siyar").

IV) Colonialism and Development. Colonial Law and International Law.

V) Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL). The contemporary aspects of western colonialism.

VI) The concept of "human development".

VII) Migration, development and human rights.The concept of co-development. 

VIII) The clash of civilizations and the mediterranean alternative.

IX) The islamic political thought and the western one in a comparative approach. Islam and democracy.

X) The origin of humanitarian intervention and the "Responsibility to Protect".

XI) The "Arab Spring" and the different constitutional models.

XII) Which possible future of Euro-mediterranean relationships? 

Readings/Bibliography

A. Anghie (ed. by), The Third world and international order,  Leiden ; Boston : Nijhoff, 2003

A. Anghie, Imperialism, Sovereignty and the Making of International Law, Cambridge University Press, 2005;

A.A. An-Na'im, Toward an Islamic Reformation. Civil Liberties, Human Rights, and International Law, Syracuse University Press, 1996;

E. Augusti, Questioni d'Oriente, ESI, Napoli 2013:

C. Amato e G. Ponzanelli (a cura di), Global Law v. Local Law, Giappichelli, Torino 2006;

Y. Ben Achour, Le role des civilisations dans le système international, Bruxelles 2003;

Y. Ben Achour, La tentazione democratica, ombre corte, Verona 2010;

J.-M. Barreto (ed.), Human Rights from a Third World Perspective. Critique, History and International Law, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012;

A. Becker Lorca, Mestizo International Law. A Global Intellectual History 1842-1933, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2014;

A.J.Bellamy, Sara E.Davies and Luke Glanville (eds.), The Responsibility to Protect and International Law, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Leiden 2011;

N. Berman, Passion and Ambivalence. Colonialism, Nationalism, and International Law, Martinus Nijhoff, Leiden-Boston 2012;

 H. Bull, La società anarchica, Vita e Pensiero, Milano 2005;

H. Bull e A. Watson, L'espansione della società internazionale, Jaca Book, Milano 1994;

M. Campanini (a cura di), Le rivolte arabe e l'Islam, Il Mulino, Bologna 2013;

F. Cassano e D. Zolo, L'alternativa mediterranea, Feltrinelli, Milano 2007;

A. Cassi, Santa, Giusta, Umanitaria. La guerra nella civiltà occidentale, Roma, Salerno Editrice, 2015;

D. Chakrabarty, Provincializzare l'Europa, Meltemi, Roma 2004;

N. Chomsky, Anno 501. La conquista continua, Gamberetti Editrice, Roma 2001;

A. Colombo, La disunità del mondo. Dopo il secolo globale, Feltrinelli, Milano 2010;

A. Colombo (a cura di), Crisi della legittimità e ordine internazionale, Guerini e Associati, Milano 2012;

R. David, Les grands systèmes de droit contemporain, Dalloz, 2002;

L. Dehio, Equilibrio o egemonia, Il Mulino, Bologna 1988;

A. Escobar, Encountering Development. The Making and Unmaking of the Third World, Princeton University Press, 1995;

F. Fanon, I dannati della terra (1961), Einaudi, Torino 2007;

F. Fanon, Pelle nera, maschere bianche. Il Nero e l'Altro (1952), Milano, Marco Tropea Editore, 1996;

L. Ferrajoli, La sovranità nel mondo moderno, Laterza, Bari 1997;

C. Focarelli, La persona umana nel diritto internazionale, Il Mulino, Bologna 2013;

A. Furia, The Foreign Aid Regime, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015;

M. Geuna (a cura di), Guerra giusta e schiavitù naturale. Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda e il dibattito sulla Conquista, Milano, Edizioni Biblioteca Francescana, 2014;

H. Patrick Glenn, Tradizioni giuridiche nel mondo, Il Mulino, Bologna 2011;

G. Gozzi, R. Salih (a cura di), (Ri)costruzione politica, società civile e cooperazione in Medio Oriente. Libano, Iraq, Palestina, L'Harmattan, Torino 2008;

G. Gozzi, Diritti e Civiltà, Il Mulino, Bologna 2010;

G. Gozzi (ed.), The Future of the Euro-Mediterranean Relationships, Il Mulino, Bologna 2012;

G. Gozzi, Umano, non umano. Intervento umanitario, colonialismo, primavere arabe, Il Mulino, Bologna 2015;

S.N. Grovogui, Sovereigns, Quasi Sovereigns and Africans, University of Minnesota Press, 1996;

U. Grozio, Prolegomeni al diritto della guerra e della pace, Morano, Napoli 1979;

U. Grozio, Diritto della guerra e della pace, Cedam, Padova 2010;

J. Habermas, L'Occidente diviso, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2000;

P. Hansen and S. Jonsson, Eurafrica. The Untold History of European Integration and Colonialism, London, Bloomsbury, 2014;

M. Hardt/A. Negri, Impero, Rizzoli, Milano 2002;

O. Höffe, La democrazia nell'era della globalizzazione, Il Mulino, Bologna 2007;

F. Horchani e D. Zolo, Mediterraneo. Un dialogo fra le due sponde, Jouvence, Roma 2005;

I. Kant, Scritti di storia, politica e diritto, Laterza, Roma-Bari 1995;

M. Khadduri, (ed.), The Islamic Law of Nations. Shaybani's Siyar, The Johns Hopkins Press, 1966;

H. Kelsen, La pace attraverso il diritto, Giappichelli, Torino 1990;

M. Koskenniemi, Il mite civilizzatore delle nazioni, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2012;

M. Koskenniemi, La politique du droit international, Editions A. Pedone, Paris 2007;

S.D. Krasner, Sovereignty. Organized Hypocrisy, Princeton University Press, Princeton 1999;

D. Kretzmer and E. Klein (edited by), The concept of human dignity in human rights discourse,  Kluwer law International, The Hague 2002;

A. Lollini, Costituzionalismo e giustizia di transizione, Il Mulino, Bologna 2005;

M. Mandel, Come l'America la fa franca con la giustizia internazionale, EGA, Torino 2005;

H. Morgenthau, Politica tra le nazioni, Il Mulino, Bologna 1997;

L. Nuzzo, Origini di una scienza. Diritto internazionale colonialismo nel XIX secolo, Vittorio Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 2012;

M. Nussbaum, Giustizia sociale e dignità umana : da individui a persone,  Il Mulino, Bologna 2002;

M. Nussbaum, Le nuove frontiere della giustizia, Il Mulino, Bologna 2007;

Y. Onuma, When was the Law of International Society Born? An Inquiry of the History of International Law from an Intercivilizational Perspective, in "Journal of the History of International Law", 2, 2000;

Y. Onuma, In Quest of Intecivilizational human rights: "Universal" vs "Relative" Human Rights viewed from an Asian perspective, in "The Asia Foundations Center for Asian Pacific Affairs", March 1996;

E. Orrù, Il tribunale del mondo. La giustificazione del diritto penale internazionale. Analisi, critica, alternative, I libri di Emil, Bologna 2010;

T. Pogge, Povertà mondiale e diritti umani, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2010;

B. Rajagopal, International Law from below, Cambridge University Press 2003;

T. Ramadan, Il riformismo islamico, Città Aperta Edizioni, Troina (En) 2002;

J. Rawls, Il diritto dei popoli, Edizioni di Comunità, Milano 2001;

H. Redissi, Islam e modernità. L'incontro dell'Islam con l'Occidente, Ombre Corte, Verona 2014;

A. Romagnoli and L. Mengoni, The Economic Development Process in the Middle East and North Africa, Routledge,  London and New York 2014;

M. Scattola (a cura di), Figure della guerra. La riflessione su pace, conflitto e giustizia tra Medioevo e prima età moderna, Franco Angeli, Milano 2003;

C. Schmitt, Il nomos della terra nel diritto internazionale dello "jus publicum europaeum",Adelphi, Milano 1991;

C. Schmitt, Il concetto discriminatorio di guerra, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2008;

C. Schmitt, La guerra d'aggressione come crimine internazionale, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2015;

Sen A.K., Lo sviluppo è libertà. Perchè non c'è crescita senza democrazia, Mondadori, Milano 2000;

Sen A. K., Globalizzazione e libertà, Mondadori, Milano 2003;

J. G. de Sepulveda, Democrate secondo ovvero sulle giuste cause di guerra, Quodlibet, Macerata 2009;

M.Shahabuddin, Ethnicity and International Law. Histories, Politics and Practices, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2016;

A.-M. Slaughter, A New World Order, Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford 2004;

B. de Sousa Santos, Another Knowledge is possible. Beyond Northern Epistemologies, Verso, London-New York 2008;

Stuart Hall, Il soggetto e la differenza, Meltemi, Roma 2006;

The Oxford Handbook of the History of International Law, ed. by B. Fassbender, A. Peters, S. Peter and D. Högger, Oxford University Press 2012;

T. Todorov, La conquista dell'America, Einaudi, Torino 1992;

R. Tuck, The Rights of War and Peace, Oxford University Press, 1999;

F. de Vitoria, Relectio de Indis. La questione degli indios, Levante editori, Bari 1996;

L. Weber, E. Fishwick and M. Marmo, Crime, Justice and Human Rights, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014;

R.A. Williams, Jr., The America Indian in Western Legal Thought. The Discourses of Conquest, Oxford University Press, New York 1990.

W. Zank (ed.), Clash or Cooperation of Civilizations?, Ashgate, Farnham, England - Burlington, USA 2009;

S. Zappalà, La tutela internazionale dei diritti umani, Il Mulino, Bologna 2011;

D. Zolo, Cosmopolis, Feltrinelli, Milano 1995;

D. Zolo, La giustizia dei vincitori, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2006;

D. Zolo, Tramonto globale, University Press, Firenze 2010.

 

Teaching methods

The teaching is delivered on the basis  of lectures, but the training of the students is facilitated by continuous discussions during the class time.Also the didactic documents provided by the professor help to favor the learning on the part of the students.

Assessment methods

The contents of the course consist in a critical approach to the study of international law, in order to clarify the Western hegemonic ideology towards other non-Western cultures and civilizations, that it has expressed since the modern age till to the present time.

The exam aims to verify:

- the student's capability of critically analyzing the international law;

- his capability to recognize the different approaches to the international law;

- his capability of recognizing the grounds of man's rights in a historical approach.  

The students who attend the lectures of the course have to study 2 books:

One suggests Diritti e civiltà, Il Mulino, Bologna 2010 or Umano, non umano. Intervento umanitario, colonialismo, "primavere arabe", Il Mulino, Bologna 2015 - but these books are not obligatory - and one more book that the students can freely choose in the bibliography of the course.

The students that do not attend the lessons of the course have to study 3 books:

One suggests Diritti e civiltà, Il Mulino, Bologna 2010 or Umano, non umano. Intervento umanitario, colonialismo, "primavere arabe", Il Mulino, Bologna 2015 - but these books are not obligatory - and two other books that they can freely choose in the bibliography of the course.

Teaching tools

The students will receive documents useful for the lectures and suggestions about links in the web.

Office hours

See the website of Gustavo Gozzi