LAW-30081 - Module Specification
School of Law
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Programme/Approved Electives for 2024/25

Available as a Free Standing Elective

Co-requisites

None

Prerequisites

None

Barred Combinations

None

Description for 2024/25

This module introduces students to the normative and institutional frameworks of international human rights law, and some of the central concepts, themes, and debates salient to the discipline. The course will begin with a deceptively simple question: What are human rights? After examining the different theoretical and conceptual frameworks underpinning the ways in which human rights are justified, we will trace the evolution of the current system of human rights and the various categories of rights that emerged since the adoption of the United Nations Charter and the over the last the ¿International Bill of Rights.¿ The module will examine a range of thematic issues such as civil and political rights, economic, social and cultural rights, individual and group rights, human rights and terrorism, human rights and the right to die, self-determination and humanitarian intervention, human rights activism, human rights and disability, human rights and gender, and human rights and the right of refugees.

To introduce students to the concept and evolution of international human rights.

Intended Learning Outcomes

recognise and identify the laws and institutions that structure international human rights: 1
discern and critique examples of international inequality and global change as contexts within which to consider human rights guarantees: 1
independently investigate and study human rights issues and audit legal responses thereto: 1
identify and interpret the ways in which international attitudes towards, and conceptions of, human rights have evolved since the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: 1

Study hours

10 x 2 hour seminars = 20 hours
seminar preparation = 36 hours
group presentation = 10 hours
background reading and essay preparation = 84 hours
Total = 150 hours
total = 150 hours

School Rules

None

Description of Module Assessment